Pinedale
by PicUnrelated
Summary: Au Maka used to lead a quit life in the Democractic Peoples Republic of West Wyoming, until she gets accused of sedition. After a quick hearing she is sentenced to a one year treatment at Pinedale juvenile reformative camp for girls. On Hiatus due to National Novel Writing Month. Normal updates will resume December first.
1. The sentence

**Dear readers,**

**welcome to my second Souleater fanfiction. Please read, enjoy and review.**

**With kind regards,  
PicUnrelated.**

Maka looked at the trees and shrubs outside the window as the bus travelled past them. Then she looked back at her cuffed hands. How long it would be until she arrived there. She looked around the bus. Uncomfortable benches, naked metal, a chainlink fence seperating the area she sat in from the driver and the guard. There was no one to talk to, she was the only passenger. But even if there was someone, the guard had made it very clear to her that if she opened her mouth, she would get to taste the cane. Her mouth was what got her in this place in the first place.

Two days ago, she was chatting with two friends of hers, Meme Tantane and Susanne Wakefield. They talked about different things, cooking, knitting, boys, other girls and whether the harvest would be any good or not. Meme complained about how the weather was so unpredictable. Maka said, "There are things not even the Ligua can change", Charles Anderson Ligua is the president of West Wyoming.

The day after that, a man knocked on the door of Maka's house in the morning, just after breakfast. Her father opened the door and the man entered without asking. He was dressed in a black uniform, a silver emblem on his right shoulder. The emblem showed the national animal of West Wyoming, a bison, in a charging position. An agent of the Government Interest and Safety Department, abbreviated GISD. His uniform lacked other decoration, though, he was clearly new at his job, Maka knew that there was a medal they got for basically not getting fired in three years, so this man must have just recently finished his training.

"I'm looking for a girl called Maka", said the agent. The village was so small that no two people had the same first name.

"I'm here", said Maka.

"There's been a report that she committed an act of sedition, a hearing has been scheduled for three o'clock, today afternoon", said the agent.

"What will happen to her if she is found guilty?", asked her father.

"She will be send to juvenile reformative camp", said the agent.

"Thank you, I'm sure it'll all work out", said her father.

"Be on time for the hearing", said the agent, "Goodbye". Maka's father said goodbye to the agent and sat down on his chair, opposite of Maka. Maka knew that she was in tremendous trouble. Her father took a swig from his cup of tea. Then he interrogated Maka about what she had done that she had been reported for sedition. At first, Maka didn't know what she had done, but then it dawned her. After her father was done asking her questions, he sent her to stand in the corner. He didn't tell her how long she would have to stand there, but Maka wouldn't have been surprised if she would have to stand there until it was time to leave for her hearing. And she had to stand there until it was time to leave for her hearing.

The hearing was being held in a small office in the town hall. A higher ranking GISD agent presided over the hearing. Meme and Susanne had been called to testify. Susanne basically retold the conversation word for word, which didn't help Maka's case. Meme claimed to have no recollection of having talked to Maka yesterday. The agent at first didn't believe her, while flipping though a file absentmindedly. Then he spotted something in the file, which he read over in disbelieve. Then he dismissed Meme and gave her a cookie and a handkerchief with a knot in it. After he had heard the witnesses, he asked Maka to tell her side of the story. Maka confirmed what Susanne had said, but asked the agent to consider the fact that she had basically only stated that the president is unable to control the weather. Not even a muscle moved in the agents face this whole time. After Maka was done, her father spoke up. He asked the agent to consider the fact that he, Maka's father, had loyally served the president during the last war, and had earned several medals. He also promised to properly punish Maka, to make sure that she would never speak ill off the president ever again.

"You will be send to Pinedale Juvenile Reformative Camp for a one year treatment", said the agent, "The bus will leave tomorrow at six o'clock, be there". Maka was so shocked, she only managed to stutter a "yes, sir". The agent then went on to explain that while he admired what her father had done for West Wyoming, but that this wasn't his hearing, so he could not consider these certainly proud achievements. Then he dismissed them. Her father didn't speak to her the entire way home. At home, she asked him whether she should pack.

"You won't need your stuff where you're gonna go", said her father. Maka had trouble sleeping that night, she wished she had never said that unfortunate sentence. In the morning she reported to the town hall for transport. A low ranking GIDS agent handcuffed her and put her in the bus. And now she was just waiting for the bus to arrive at Pinedale.

A few hours into the afternoon, Maka was wondering when she would get something to eat, the bus pulled up to the gate of Pinedale juvenile reformation camp for girls. It was surrounded by tall fences, with barbed wire, two in fact, running parallel to each other. Guard towers were placed regularly along the fences, from her seat, Maka could see them manned by black clothed figures with rifles. The gate was eventually opened and the bus drove into the facility. The main building stood tall and gray. Its barred windows looking at her like a thousand eyes. The bus stopped and the guard picked up Maka and began to drag her out of the bus. Maka followed cooperatively. The lawn was nice and tidy. A path circled the main building. A blonde woman stood before the main gate, she wore her hair in two interwoven braids, dressed in very orderely black clothes.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Gorgon, and I'll be your counselor here", said Dr. Gorgon.


	2. Welcome in Pinedale

"Nice to meet you, ma'am", said Maka shyly. Medusa went into the building, Maka followed her. The first room was the reception. Dr. Gorgon handed the lady behind the reception a folder, Maka assumed it was her file. The lady read the documents over and handed a document back to Dr. Gorgon, who then led Maka into another room. This room had a table and closet in it there was a shower head in the corner, with cheap soap and even cheaper shampoo. A female guard was standing at the entrance and removed Maka's handcuffs.

"Undress", ordered Dr. Gorgon. Maka was reluctant to obey, she didn't want to be seen naked by these strangers.

"You can either undress now or make your acquaintance with the cane, your choice", said Dr. Gorgon. Maka began to remove her dress and her shirt, folding them and putting them on the table.

"The underwear too", said Dr. Gorgon. Maka was very reluctant to remove her underwear, she didn't want to be naked in front of two strangers. Dr. Gorgon went to the closet and pulled out a long stick with a curved end. The cane. It was as thick as a finger, and a bit longer than her arm. Maka hurriedly removed her underwear and put it to the rest of her clothes.

"Shower, now", ordered Dr. Gorgon. Maka went up to the shower and turned it on. The water was ice cold. Maka wanted to avoid getting in any trouble, so she cleaned herself as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. Once she was done, the guard handed her a towel to dry herself, which Maka promptly did. The guard then put her old clothes into a box before she handed her a set of gray clothes. Her uniform. It consisted of underwear, socks, a shirt, shoes and a skirt going down to her knees.

"Put these clothes on", ordered Dr. Gorgon. Maka, looking at the cane, obeyed quickly. Looking down at her new uniform, she saw that there was a number and name tag over her right chest.

"As you can see, you're now inmate thirtyseven-B-three-point-fifteen", said Dr. Gorgon, "Do you know what that means?".

"No, ma'am", said Maka.

"It means that your room is B-three-point fifteen", said Dr. Gorgon, signaling Maka to follow her. She lead her into another room. There was a scale painted on one of the walls. A young woman was working with a camera.

"Stand at the wall", ordered Dr. Gorgon and Maka obeyed, "Hold this and look at the camera", handing her a board which had Maka's name, age and sentence written on it. The young woman took three pictures.

"Now turn around and look at the door", ordered Dr. Gorgon. Maka obeyed. "Hold your sign so that the writing faces the camera". Once Maka was doing that, the young woman with the camera took three more pictures. Maka was then told to face the other door. Three more pictures were taken. Then she had to face the wall. But she didn't had to hold her sign in this position, Dr. Gorgon did it for her. Three more pictures were taken. Dr. Gorgon led Maka into hallway. There were several other girls in the hall, they were all inmates, like Maka. Maka didn't know where Dr. Gorgon would bring her, presumably to her room. She wondered whether she would have a room to herself, or if she would have roommates, and how many. They passed by a brunette woman dressed the same as Dr. Gorgon, dragging a crying redheaded girl by her hair. Maka wondered where this redhead was headed. It couldn't be anywhere good. After a while they arrived in Dr. Gorgon's office. Dr. Gorgon took a block of papers, filled out the topmost paper and handed it to Maka. It contained her number, Dr. Gorgon's signature and three empty rings.

"This is your behavior sheet", explained Dr. Gorgon, "each time your behavior draws negative attention and a staff member thinks it's necessary, a hole will be punched into it to signify a strike. When it has three strikes, you report here for punishment, even if said staff member has already punished you".

"What if I lose it?", asked Maka.

"You report here for punishment", said Dr. Gorgon, taking out a pair of punch pliers and punching a hole into the first circle, "That's for interrupting me".

"If your card already has three strikes, the punishment will be a week in solitary, and a week will be added to your sentence, in addition to the punishment for earning three strikes", explained Dr. Gorgon, "any questions?".

"What if I'm on my way here after receiving three strikes and earn another one?", asked Maka.

"As you can see, there's a line for date and time under the third circle, as long as you turn in the card within two hours of receiving the third strike, any more than three strikes will be applied on the next card", explained Dr. Gorgon, "If it happened during the night, it's until eight o clock of the next day. It's your responsibility to make sure the staff member writes the time down. Does that answer all your questions?".

"Yes, ma'am", said Maka.

"Good, I'll show you around, follow me", said Dr. Gorgon, leading Maka through the building, "You have to be respectful to each and every staff member, when you pass one of us on the hall, you have to greet us. You are not allowed to talk to anybody who isn't a staff member in the hall. If you want to talk to your friends, do so in the canteen, the yard, your room, et cetera. For safety reason, it's prohibited to run inside the building. Loitering in the halls is similarly prohibited, as is putting stuff down somewhere where people could trip over it".

"This here is the library, only the library books are permitted here. You can check out a book for up to two weeks. I think this is a nice place to study. Oh, and be sure to return books on time, the librarian is very strict. Moving on". Dr. Gorgon walked Maka through a few more corridors, until they arrived at a courtyard. It was completely enclosed by the building. Even the windows facing the courtyard were barred. "Here we have the yard. You can go here to run around during recess or after you've finished your homework". A couple of younger girls were playing catch. A couple of hallways later they arrived at a room with many tables. "This is the canteen, breakfast, lunch and dinner is served here, but you probably already guessed that". Dr. Gorgon showed Maka another room with several tables and a few bookshelves on the side. "This is the common room. You can go here during recess or after you've done your homework". Dr. Gorgon then lead Maka up three flights of stairs. They moved down several corridors. The doors of this corridor had spyholes in them and a sign with a number next to them. They entered a corridor with numbers starting at B-three-point-one. Dr. Gorgon opened the door to room three-point-fifteen. Inside were four desks and two two story bunk beds. Two of the desks were occupied by two other inmates, a black haired girl and a dark blonde girl. A girl with lighter blonde hair was lying in one of the bunks, she was obviously smarter than the others, since she had finished her homework earlier than them. Dr. Gorgon cleared her throat. All three girls quickly got up to faced her and Maka.

"This is your new roommate, Maka", said Dr. Gorgon, "Explain her schedule to her, and look after her for her first few days here".

"Yes, ma'am", said the three girls in unison.

"I see Elizabeth and Tsubaki have been hard a t work", said Dr. Gorgon, "And you, Patricia?"

"I'm already done with my homework", said Patricia.

"Really?", questioned Dr. Gorgon, "show me". Patricia stood around and stammered.

"What are you waiting for?", asked Dr. Gorgon, "show me that you have already finished your homework". Patricia remained silent, averting her gaze. Dr. Gorgon grabbed her hair and pulled hard.

"Laziness and then lying to cover it up", said Dr. Gorgon, giving Patricia's hair another pull, "This is unacceptable. You know that homework has to be done right after the lessons". Turning to the others, she added, "finish your homework, then explain Maka her schedule".

"Yes, ma'am", said Elizabeth and Tsubaki in unison. Dr. Gorgon left the room, dragging Patricia behind her.


	3. Schedule

"So...", said Maka, "what can you tell me?".

"We'll have to finish our homework first", said Elizabeth.

"Okay", said Maka, and began pacing up and down. She wondered what would happen with Patricia. Maka decided that she would do her homework right after her lessons, to avoid suffering the same fate as Patricia. Maka looked over Elizabeth's shoulder, she seemed to be doing math. She wasn't doing well, Maka could spot a mistake in every problem she had already solved, and she didn't think she would be able to solve all of these problems correctly.

"Please, Tsubaki, you gotta help me", said Elizabeth before Maka could offer her help.

"Sorry, Liz, you know what happened the last time", said Tsubaki. Maka looked over Tsubaki's shoulder now, Tsubaki was much farther than Liz, but was far from done. She was clearly better at math, since her answers were better.

"Why can't you help her?", asked Maka.

"They could be watching us right now", said Tsubaki, "we're not allowed to help each other on our homework. Please, just take yourself a bunk and wait until we're finished with our homework. You can have the one over there". Tsubaki pointed at the bottom bunk of the bed to the left of the door. Maka did as she had been told. She noticed that the bed was very well made. The pillow, the mattress and the planked all had a white and blue tartan pattern. All three were arranged in such a way that the pattern was never interrupted, she could barely see where the blanket stopped. Blanked and pillow were perfectly aligned with the matress.

"And done", said Tsubaki, Liz seemed to still struggle with her math homework. Tsubaki went over to Maka.

"What are you in for?", asked Tsubaki.

"Sedition, I'll be here for a year", said Maka. Tsubaki's eyes widened.

"Sedition? Only one year for sedition?", asked Tsubaki in disbelief, "How did you manage to only get one year for sedition?"

"It was very mild sedition", said Maka with a shrug, "I only said that the president can't control the weather. And what are you in for?".

"My parents have been executed for treason", said Tsubaki, "You don't know how lucky you are to have a fixed sentence".

"I'm sorry", said Maka, "So how long will you stay here?".

"Until I'm eighteen", said Tsubaki, "Then I'll have to join the army".

"And Elizabeth?", asked Maka.

"Our parents committed an act of high treason for some guy", said Liz, distracting herself from her math homework, "named Louis K. apparently. I don't know what happened to them, they got us first".

"Our parents...?", asked Maka.

"I and Patty are sisters", said Liz, "Oh, you can call me Liz". Liz went back to her math homework. Tsubaki showed Maka a paper hanging on the door, under the spyhole.

"This is our schedule", explained Tsubaki, "We have to get up at five o'clock and make our beds. We have to report outside for morning exercise by five fifteen. They check our beds in that time, and you'll get in trouble if they don't like yours. At six fifteen, we have to shower. Fifteen minutes later, we have to report for roll call. After they've called us, they let us have breakfast. At seven o'clock, classes start. As you can see, the first three periods each day are political education. Then we have three periods of various other subjects, today it was math, literature and science. Then we have twenty minutes of lunch, followed by a one hour work assignment. Currently, we are assigned to cleaning the second story of section D, but that changes every week. After work, we have another three hours of classes, consisting of two periods of political education every day in addition to two other subjects, today we had history and music. Then, at half to five, we finally have free time, but as you have just witnessed, we have to do our homework right away, it generally eats up most of our free time. In half an hour, we can go to dinner. Then, at eight o'clock, we get locked in our rooms. An hour later it's lights out. On Sundays, we only have six periods of political education in the morning, and most of the afternoon to ourselves, apart from two hours of work after lunch".

"And you have free time now?", asked Maka.

"Yes", said Tsubaki.

"Do you always finish your homework this fast?", asked Maka.

"On Monday, I was unable to finish my homework", said Tsubaki.

"Did you get in trouble?", asked Maka.

"No, I finished the homework I couldn't finish the next day", said Tsubaki.

"And done", said Liz, "Ms Metzger will probably crucify me for these atrociously wrong answers, but at least I'm done".

"You should invest more time in your homework", said Tsubaki, "You know that Ms. Metzger can get very angry".

"You're probably right, maybe later, let's go", said Liz, leaving the room. Tsubaki and Maka followed her. Maka wondered where they were going.

"Medusa probably didn't tell you this", said Liz, pointing at a room, "but this is the restroom".

"Medusa?", asked Maka.

"Dr. Gorgon's first name, don't call her that to her face", explained Liz.

"Excuse me", said Maka and went to the restroom. It was a very clean restroom, but it didn't have any stalls. When she came back she resumed following Liz and Tsubaki.

"And this is the shower room", said Liz, pointing at another room on the other side of the hallway. Liz went down into the yard, where the three girls talked a bit about this and that, before a bell called them to dinner at seven o'clock. After Maka had fetched her dinner, they served mostly bread with curd cheese, a guard called out.

"Inmate thirty seven-B-three-fifteen". Maka jumped, that was her number.

"Here!", yelled Maka instinctively.

"You are to report to Dr. Gorgon's office after dinner", said the guard and walked away before Maka could even say, "yes, ma'am".

"Looks like someone's in trouble", chuckled Liz. Maka felt sick. She slowly ate her meal, finishing after the other girls, despite the fact that she had no lunch today. Maka put her tray back, like the other girls, and walked to Dr. Gorgon's office. As she arrived there, Dr. Gorgon was leaving her office.

"You wanted to see me, ma'am?", asked Maka.

"I just wanted to tell you that you need to go to the janitor and let him hand you some stuff you need", said Dr. Gorgon, handing Maka a sheet of paper, before explaining Maka where to find the janitor. She found her and she handed her a box with a toothbrush, toothpaste, a few replacement uniforms, sport uniforms, and a towel. Maka thanked her and went back to her room. She put the the uniforms into the closet, there was an empty section, which she assumed to be for her. She didn't feel like doing much, so she brought the janitor her box back and went back to her room, where she lied down on her bunk and thought about what lied ahead. A short time before curfew Liz and Tsubaki came back. Then a bell rang, and Maka could hear somebody going through the halls. She heard the lock of her door click. Only three hundred and sixty five days to go. Liz took a second look at her homework at Tsubaki's urging. Maka didn't pay much attention to them. A bell rung. Tsubaki explained that it was five minutes before lights out now. Maka began to undress for bed. And a short time later, the lights went out.


	4. Morning exercise

A short while later, Maka was woken up by a girl sobbing on the other side of the door. Then the door was opened.

"I hope you've learned your lesson", said Dr. Gorgon.

"Yes, ma'am", sobbed the girl. Maka wondered who it was, probably Patty.

"And what have you learned?", asked Dr. Gorgon.

"That I have to do my homework right after classes", sobbed Patty.

"And?", asked Dr. Gorgon.

"That I must not lie", sobbed Patty.

"Good, now go to sleep and be quiet", ordered Dr. Gorgon.

"Yes, ma'am", sobbed Patty. Dr Gorgon closed the door, and Maka could hear Patty undress and climb into her bunk.

Maka was awoken by a loud bell. She was used to getting up a cock crow, so she woke up immediately. She figured it had to be five o'clock now. Looking around, she could see that Tsubaki and Liz were already making their beds. Maka got out and began making her bed herself before she started to get dressed. She figured that she would need to wear her gym clothes, since the first thing on the schedule was morning exercise.

"If you leave your bed like that, you'll get in trouble", said Tsubaki. Maka thought her bed looked fine.

"What's wrong with it?", asked Maka.

"The pattern on the blanket doesn't match up with the pattern on the sheet", said Tsubaki.

"Your kidding me, right?", asked Maka.

"No, I'm serious", said Tsubaki, while she was getting dressed. Maka went back to her bed and tried to align her blanket to the sheet.

"Let me help you", said Tsubaki after she had gotten dressed, aligning the pillow to the sheet.

"If you don't hurry up, we're going to be late for morning exercise", said Liz. Maka and Tsubaki were working on the blanket. It still wasn't perfectly aligned.

"Just go, we'll catch up with you", said Tsubaki.

"Just go", said Maka to Tsubaki, "you shouldn't get yourself into trouble for me". Tsubaki was concentrated on aligning the blanket.

"That should do", said Tsubaki, "let's go". Maka took a last look at her bed, she couldn't a see a break in the pattern. She hoped nobody else could, either. Maka and Tsubaki walked towards the main entrance in at a brisk pace. Maka wanted to run, but Tsubaki held her back.

"Ms Metzger is right behind us", whispered Tsubaki. Maka was thankful, but couldn't get herself to express her thankfulness. The fact that Tsubaki's whispering hadn't been noticed was probably already very good luck. As they passed the main entrance, the bell rang. They were tardy. But the teacher in charge of morning exercise was distracted. Tsubaki and Maka quickly ran towards the other inmates, who were lined up in front of the entrance. They hurriedly took a place in the rows and hoped that nobody had noticed them. The lines were quickly looked over, and a woman dressed the same way as Dr. Gorgon, ordered them to start running laps around the building.

Maka began to run as she had been told. She decided that she would keep up with Tsubaki. The first lap went without problems, she overtook several younger girls, the youngest looked to be about six years old. The second lap was more problematic, but Maka still managed to keep up with Tsubaki. By the third lap her legs felt like pudding and her lungs were hurting tremendously. But she carried on. She managed to keep up with Tsubaki throughout the fourth, fifth and sixth lap. During the seventh lap, she fell behind. Seeing Tsubaki pull ahead of her gave Maka new fire. She gave it all she had. She managed to once again catch up to Tsubaki. When would they be allowed to stop running? This hour of exercise could not be completely composed of running laps around the building, could it? At the beginning of the eight lap, Maka fell behind Tsubaki once again. Maka wished she could keep up with Tsubaki. But she couldn't. Maka wondered what would happen if she stopped running. She looked around and saw that the woman she had seen dragging that redhead by the hair yesterday was also running with them, now dressed in gym clothes instead of her usual counselor's uniform. And she was carrying a cane. Seeing this, Maka suddenly felt motivated and began to run faster again, if only to avoid getting into melee range to this lady. Maka managed to keep her distance to the lady for a bit. But at the beginning of the ninth lap, Maka noticed that the lady was catching up. Maka ran as fast as she could. But the lady was still closing the distance between them, just a bit slower. Maka moved from the inside of the track to the outside, in hope of letting the lady pass. To her horror, she saw that the lady was still behind her. Maka had to run faster. But before the tenth lap started, the lady had caught up to Maka. Maka desperately tried to shake her off, she ran as fast as she could, but the lady kept up with her, without any trouble.

Maka could hear the cane swooshing through the air. Maka mustered all her strengh to avoid the cane. Then she realized that this had been a warning shot. Maka tried her best to keep her pace up, she doubted that there would be a second warning shot.

Then a whistle was blown and everybody stopped running. Maka felt like she was about to collapse onto the floor. She slowly walked towards her room, her legs feeling like they were made of pudding. Maka arrived in her room just after Tsubaki left it, wrapped in a towel and carrying soap, toothbrush and toothpaste. Maka wanted to simply throw herself into her bed an sleep. But she knew that she couldn't do that. But at least she didn't have gym class today. Or did she?

"What day is it?", asked Maka as she grabbed her towel, soap and toothbrush. No one answered, Maka noticed that she was the last in the room. Seeing as her room-, or should she say cellmates had left their clothes in the room, Maka disrobed. She wrapped herself in a towel and went to shower. The shower room consisted of a several shower heads the ceiling with a faucet for water on the wall next to each one. Almost all of them were occupied by inmates showering. A few of them had visible marks. Red stripes across their buttocks. There was an available shower head next to Liz. Maka stepped up and turned the shower on. A stream of cold water immediately hit her. Maka could spot Patty, she was showering with her back to the wall.

"What day is it?", asked Maka.

"Thursday", said Liz. Maka thanked her and hastily cleaned herself. She didn't want to be late for roll call on her first real day. She turned the water off and dried herself with her towel. Then she wrapped the towel around herself and went up to a sink to brush her teeth. On the way to her room, she saw that she had six minutes left to report for roll call. She quickly got dressed and put her gym clothes in an orderly fashion back into the closet. Tsubaki then told her to hurry up, unless she wanted to be late for roll call. On the way out Maka took a look at her schedule. She had gym class today, sixth period.


	5. Pledge of allegiance

Maka followed Tsubaki to the yard, where most other inmates were already assembled and waiting for roll call to begin. Maka wanted to just pick a spot, but Tsubaki pulled her to another spot next to Liz and Patty. Apparently, there was a strict order of where they had to stand during roll call. Maka could see that the girl behind her was also from block B. All the inmates clenched their hand and put it on the middle of their chest. Maka did the same thing.

"I pledge my allegiance to the flag of West Wyoming, the republic for which it stands, and its president Charles Anderson Ligua. One Nation under the glorious leadership of Charles Anderson Ligua, indivisble, with liberty and justice for all", chanted Maka with all the other inmates in unison. Maka guessed that it was now time to sing the national anthem. She was right. West Wyoming's national anthem told the story of West Wyoming's president, Charles Anderson Ligua, and how he rose from the masses to guide West Wyoming to peace and prosperity. Which he did successfully. The next verse told about the future plans that the president had for West Wyoming. It told about a great nation long gone, which at the high of it's power, was even greater than West Wyoming, partly due to the fact that West Wyoming was the greatest part of that nation at the time, and the whole is more than the sum of it's parts. Said nation was ruled by a predecessor of Charles Anderson Ligua. Then the nation crumbled. But one day Charles Anderson Ligua would reunite it and reign as its president. As president of the United States of America, for all eternity.

Roll call was conducted quickly and efficiently. All the blocks were being called out simultaneously. The guards conducting the roll call barely waited for them to answer, calling out the next one before the last one had even finished saying "here". "Thirty-seven-B-3-fifteen!", "Here!". Soon the roll call was done and they were dismissed. Maka then followed the rest of them into the canteen, where she found a huge line for breakfast. Maka wondered whether she would get anything to eat, or if she would spend her time standing in line here. How had she managed to get dinner yesterday? But then she was astounded by how fast the line moved. The line split into sixteen more lines. Maka and the rest of the girls from B-three-fifteen all stayed in one line.

Once it was their turn, they were handed a tablet with food and went to their table without saying a word. Today it was bread with some kind of gooey substance on it. Maka was reluctant to eat it.

"Eat it", said Tsubaki, "You need your strength. Just hold your nose shut if you don't like the taste". Maka ate it, almost throwing up. Once they were done eating they went to their room again, to get their notebooks and writing equipment, which they needed for their classes. It occurred to Maka that she hadn't been issued such. So she asked Tsubaki, who told her that she would be handed her notebooks and writing utensils by their political education teacher, Ms. Berger. Maka waited in her room as her roomates were busy picking up their equipment. Tsubaki had all the notebooks and books she would need before lunch arranged in one neat pile on her desk, next to one pile with all the books she would need after lunch. Liz had all of her stuff organized in the several drawers beneath her desk, but it took her some time to grab the things she would need today. Patricia had all of her stuff crammed into one drawer, but she still somehow managed to find the important things fast enough that the others didn't tell her to hurry up. Then they went to their first class of the day, political education.


	6. Political Education

The classroom was very spartan. Desks and chairs for the students, one for the teacher and a blackboard. There was a bookshelf next to the teacher's desk. But the one thing Maka spotted first was the cane hanging on the wall, it was also the only item not found in the classroom of her village's school. Maka didn't know where she should sit. She spotted an empty seat next to Patty. So she sat down there.

"You're in my seat", said a blonde girl.

"I'm sorry", said Maka, standing back up, "I'm new". The blonde girl sat down, just a moment before the bell rang.

"Why aren't you in your seat?". Maka turned around to see an elderly lady with her gray hair in a tight looking sternly at her.

"I'm new here", said Maka.

"You can sit over there", said the lady, pointing at an empty desk in front of Liz. Maka thanked her and quickly sat down. The lady went to the front of the class. Every inmate stood up.

"Good morning, Ms Berger", said the entire class except Maka in unison.

"Good morning class", said Ms. Berger, "We have a new student today, Maka". Maka waved shyly.

"Stretch out your hands, Maka", ordered Ms. Berger. Maka did as she was told. Ms. Berger began to inspect them. Then she took a look at Maka's uniform before finishing off with her hair. She wordlessly moved on to Liz, quickly inspecting each of her students, before she finished with the student in front of Maka.

"Moving on, here are your notebooks, Maka", said Ms. Berger, handing her a box filled with notebooks, schoolbooks and a pencil case with a pen, a pencil, several ink cartdriges, a pencil sharpener and an eraser, "A notebook for each subject, you are to put your number on each one. You also have to write your number in the books, there's a field for that on the inside of the cover".

"Thank you, ma'am", said Maka.

"Now sit down", ordered Ms. Berger. Everybody sat down and Ms. Berger began her lesson. It was about the domestic policy of West Wyoming, the tax code, to be exact. Maka paid attention, because she liked to think of herself as a good student. Ms. Berger explained how taxation in West Wyoming worked and which institutions were responsible for collecting the taxes. And they still had one hour and forty five minutes to go

"Can anybody of you tell me who our current minister of finance is?", asked Ms. Berger. A black haired girl raised her hand. Maka knew the answer, so she raised her hand, too.

"Yes, Lisa?", asked Ms. Berger.

"Wesley White", answered Lisa, standing up.

"Anybody else?", asked Ms. Berger, "yes, new girl?".

"My name is Maka, ma'am", said Maka.

"And what is your answer to my question?", asked Ms. Berger.

"Daniel White", answered Maka.

"That is correct", said Ms. Berger, "stretch out your hand Lisa", ordered Ms. Berger. Lisa was slow to obey the teacher's command. Once her hand was outstretched, Ms. Berger hit it with her cane. Lisa winced in pain. Ms. Berger resumed her lesson. She went on to talk about the measures the president had instituted to fight tax evasion. Before Charles Anderson Ligua took leadership of West Wyoming, the country had been on the brink of bankruptcy. This was not due to the fact that they had a lack of resources, or too little manpower, it was because the people weren't paying their taxes, which was possible because the tax collector's were corrupt. Therefore the president partially integrated the ministry of finance into the government interest and safety department, which resulted in the financial branch of the government interest and safety department. This explained why Maka's father had once been questioned by a GISD agent about their neighbor's new plow. Her neighbor was later found innocent. Maka never figured out how he paid for the plow, and she didn't really care. Then Ms. Berger went on to explain how the other countries had no such system or vastly inferior systems, which was the reason that they had to raise more taxes. Because everybody had to pay the taxes, even the president, taxation in West Wyoming was fair, and since everybody paid the taxes, they could afford to tax the people less, which made West Wyoming into the fairest country of the world. Ms. Berger proceeded to write something on the board, Maka used the opportunity to look at the clock. An hour and twenty minutes to go.

"Turn your books to to page one hundred and ninety", ordered Ms. Berger, "exercises one to ten, what you don't finish here is homework" Maka opened her book and read over the first exercise. She had to describe how the ministry of finance was organized. She started a new page, since her notes left almost no more room on the page.

"I just realized that I have forgotten to collect your homework", said Ms. Berger, "hand it in now". Every student except Maka handed Ms. Berger the homework. Maka continued working on the exercises. Ms. Berger went through the lines, occasionally looking over the student's shoulders. She ripped out a page of Tsubaki's notebook, telling her to start over. Maka had just finished exercise one and started with exercise two, in which she had to explain how tax evasion was prevented. She could hear Ms. Berger explaining something to Liz, before she went on to explain something to another inmate. Maka finished exercise two, then three, then four. Maybe she would be able to finish them all now and leave class without homework. She figured her chances were pretty good. Exercise five was tricky, but Maka managed. She could hear Ms. Berger ripping out another student's work before telling said inmate to start over. Maka wondered why Ms. Berger did this. She just hoped that Ms. Berger would either not look at her work, or find her work satisfactory. Exercise six was easy and Maka had no problem solving it. Exercise seven asked how tax evasion damaged the economy. Maka had to think for a bit, but could solve it without a problem. Only three exercises left. Only two exercises left. Ms. Berger was talking to Patty. Then Ms. Berger hit Patty on the palm of the hand with her cane, like she did with Lisa. But at least she didn't make her start over. Maka got started on exercise ten. Ms. Berger looked over her shoulder. She grabbed Maka's notebook, flipped through the pages, grabbing the one with the exercises on them. Then she ripped them out.

"Start over", said Ms. Berger, "this notebook is only for notes". Digging another notebook out of the box she had given Maka, she added, "This one is for exercises".

"Yes, ma'am", said Maka, opening the exercise notebook. She just had to start over again. All her hard work, gone in a single moment. She guessed leaving this class without homework was no longer feasible.

"Put your pens down", said Ms. Berger, "what you haven't finished is homework". Ms. Berger then went on to talk more about West Wyoming's tax code. Thirty minutes left to go. Maka didn't feel like paying attention, but she knew she had to, for all she knew, they could be writing a test about this tomorrow. She also didn't want to get caught being inattentive, so she still took notes like everybody else. At nine fifteen, Ms. Berger dismissed them after the bell had rung. Maka packed all of her stationery into the box and carried it to her room, after she had agreed with Tsubaki to meet her in the common room later. Once in her room she put all the stuff she wouldn't need today on her desk before she went to the common room.


	7. Gym class

"How far did you get with these exercises?", asked Patty once she spotted Maka.

"I don't want to talk about that", said Maka.

"How about we play catch?", suggested Patty.

"Sorry, but my legs are extremely sore", said Maka.

"We're also not allowed to run inside", said Liz. Maka hoped science class would go by better than political education.

The science classroom had metal tables instead of wooden ones. And the teacher's desk had a sink attached to it. The science teacher was a young black haired woman in a lab coat. Everybody took their seats, except Maka, because she didn't have one, so the science teacher, whose name was Ms. Philips, assigned her one. The lecture was about the electrolysis of water, to make it into hydrogen and oxygen. Maka found this fascinating, until then she had assumed water to be an element. This chemical procedure was discovered by Charles Anderson Ligua, who discovered it after he discovered that water could be produced from two gasses. A stroke off luck, as he had admitted himself, which proved that the universe favored him. After Ms. Philips had finished her lecture, she demonstrated the procedure. Maka liked it especially when she made the hydrogen back into water by lighting it on fire, it was a shame that that water would still have to condense.

"As homework you'll do exercises two, three and four on page twenty six", said Ms. Philips, "Class dismissed", the bell rung in exactly the moment she stopped speaking. Maka left the class pleasantly surprised. History class was taught by a middle aged redheaded lady named Ms. Harris. She began to lecture the class about a complicated series of events which were commonly referred to as the collapse. She said that historians agree that the start of the downfall was when Europe was united under a man only known as the president of Europe. Many people would later curse the day that he was elected. The president of Europe was the first of two rulers of Europe, the second being the first citizen of Europe. Ms. Harris highlighted mistakes committed by the president of Europe and how the president of West Wyoming would have done it better, but sadly he hadn't been born back then. She went on to state that most historians agree that the collapse was not solely the fault of the president of Europe, and that his economic policy was the greatest at it's time, it would only be bested later by Charles Anderson Ligua's economic policy. The bell rang. Ms. Philips went on to explain how the president of Europe was responsible for an event called the second cold war, which had escalated into the third world war, because he had laid unjust claim to other territories. Then she dismissed the class, after assigning them a two page essay about Europe as homework.

Now came what Maka dreaded worst, gym class. Her legs were aching like crazy from running earlier today, and she didn't think that this could be cured by doing more sport. Maybe she should skip gym class. But she had never skipped before, and she didn't want to start now.

"I'm just curious", whispered Maka once they were in their room, "but what's the punishment for skipping class?".

"I skipped once", said Patty, "I couldn't sit for a week after that, but I had to spend this week in solitary, so I didn't have to sit down".

"To give you some advice", said Tsubaki, "don't, solitary is terrible. I have just been in there once for a day, and it was horrible". Maka decided that she would attend gym class, if only to avoid solitary confinement. So she got dressed for gym class. The gym was in a building behind the main building, Maka had wondered what it was when she ran past it during morning exercise. The school in her village didn't have such a nice gym, in fact it didn't have any gym at all, but the school back in her village was a one room school. The gym teacher, Ms. Bell, looked a lot fitter than the other teachers, which was not surprising, considering the subject she taught.

"A new girl!", exclaimed Ms. Bell once she spotted Maka, "drop down and give me twenty".

"Excuse me, ma'am", said Maka, "I don't know what you mean".

"Pushups. And make that thirty", said Ms. Bell. Maka began doing these pushups. The first five were easy. Then it became harder. Maka could feel the blood pressure in her head. It was getting harder and harder, but she managed.

"...twenty eight, twenty nine...", counted Maka.

"Ten more", said Ms. Bell. Each pushup was a battle in itself. A battle that got harder and harder with each one she fought. The thirty fourth pushup brought agony. Halfway through the next, she collapsed.

"I'm not surprised", said Ms. Bell, "Everybody else, do two pushups for each one Maka didn't do. That would be twelve. And you, new girl, run laps". Maka didn't dare to second guess her gym teacher, so she started running laps while everybody else was doing pushups, despite the horrible pain in her legs. They finished their pushups. Maka stopped running.

"Did I say you could stop, new girl?", yelled Ms. Bell. Maka resumed running. She quickly got out of breath, she hadn't fully recovered from the morning exercises. The rest of the class was doing gymnastics. It looked like it was a lot more fun than running laps.

"Faster, new girl!", yelled Ms. Bell. Maka ran faster. After Maka had been running for roughly twenty minutes, the class stopped doing gymnastics, and Ms. Bell allowed Maka to stop running. Maka was clad she was finally allowed to stop running, a chance to catch her breath. Maybe Ms. Bell had something even meaner in store for her now. Maka didn't even want to speculate about it.

"Line up in two rows, facing each other", said Ms. Bell, "leave enough space for someone to run between the lines". Everybody did as they were told, but Ms. Bell held Maka back.

"Run between these lines, new girl", said Ms. Bell, "the rest of you, hit her while she runs past you". Ms. Bell put Maka in front of one of the sides of the path. Maka was extremely nervous.

"Okay, go!", ordered Ms. Bell. The only thing that frightened Maka more than the thought of obeying these orders was the thought of not obeying these orders. She was quite certain that if she refused, Ms. Bell would do something even nastier to her. So she ran, protecting her head with her arms. The very moment that she entered these lines, she felt a punch, on her right side, followed by one on her left. The best way to avoid more punches would be to run faster. She tried, but she was already very tired. Somebody kicked her, which knocked her off balance. Then somebody punched her from the other side, which rebalanced her. Another punch in her ribs, then one on the back, one on the head, which hit her arm. She was about halfway through. She had to go faster now. Another punch landed painfully, exactly on the same place she had already been punched in the arm. Somebody managed to get her fist around her arms and bring it down on her head. One gave her hair a quick and painful pull. She was almost out now, only a few more left to go. Somebody kicked her again, but she was able to keep her balance this time. Maka ran out of the lines. She had made it. And she was still alive. But her entire body was hurting from the beating she just received.

"Sit down over there, new girl", said Ms. Berger. Maka obeyed. Ms. Bell let a guard hand her a folding knife and unfolded it. She handed this knife to Maka.

"Let if fall on your bare calf, from as high as you can", said Ms. Bell.

"Like this?", asked Maka, holding the knife above her calf, while pulling her shorts up with her other hand.


	8. Work

"No, with the tip pointing downwards", said Ms. Bell. What would happen if she refused to drop it? More importantly, what would happen if she did? Maka pictured the knife embedding itself in her calf, leaving a blood squirting wound. Maka noticed that everybody was staring at her. They were looking at her expectantly. As if they wanted her to let it fall. Maka wondered what would happen if she refused. Would she have to run between these lines again? Would she get caned? She looked around. Everybody was looking at her, and only her. Maka took a deep breath and let the knife fall.

A sharp pain. The knife bounced from her calf and fell to the floor. Ms. Bell picked it up. Looking at her calf, Maka could see a tiny red dot. Blood, but much less than she expected.

"What's your name?", asked Ms. Bell.

"My name is Maka, ma'am", said Maka.

"Everybody line up again", ordered Ms. Bell. She proceeded to look at the lines. "Maka, take Tsubaki's place. Tsubaki, get ready". Tsubaki left her place in the line, and went to the front of the line, where Maka stood just a moment earlier.

"Ready, set, go!", said Ms. Bell. Tsubaki began to run. Immeadiately, the inmates she ran past began beating her. Maka wondered whether she should hit Tsubaki or not. Ms. Bell was looking at them. What would Ms. Bell say if Maka didn't hit Tsubaki? What would Tsubaki say if Maka did hit her? Patty hit Tsubaki. A bit later, Liz punched Tsubaki. Why did Tsubaki have to run, anyway? Maybe she had to run because she didn't hit Maka. That would mean that if Maka didn't hit her now, Maka would have to run again. If Tsubaki then still didn't hit her, she would have to run again. Maka punched Tsubaki. It would result in an everlasting circle if she didn't punch Tsubaki. Maka decided that she would punch Tsubaki. She would feel bad about this. Maka noticed that Tsubaki was already past her. And Maka did punch her. Maka felt ashamed of herself. She felt like she had just betrayed a friend. She would have to apologize to Tsubaki later.

"Okay, Crona, you're up", said Ms. Bell. A pink haired girl took her position in front of the row, and Tsubaki took Crona's position.

"I can't deal with this!", exclaimed Crona.

"For this, you'll run twice", said Ms. Bell, "Ready, set go". Maka gave Crona a hart punch when she came by and a kick the second time. It was obvious that Ms. Bell would make all of her students run. If Ms. Bell would only run herself, too, Maka would be a lot happier. As Maka punched a girl with brown hair, she wondered what would happen if there was some time left at the end of class. Would Ms. Bell make them run again, or would she do something else. Her question was answered after the last inmate had run.

"Okay, there are about ten minutes of class time left", said Ms. Bell, "If one of you runs the gauntlet again, I'll let you go". Tsubaki quietly took her position in front of the rows. Ms. Bell told her to start running. This time Maka didn't punch Tsubaki.

"Tsubaki has to run again because Maka didn't participate", said Ms. Bell. Maka felt even worse now. Tsubaki got in position again, and on Ms. Bell's signal, ran again. This time, Maka gave her a strong punch. Then, Out of fear that Ms. Bell had missed it, Maka punched Tsubaki in the back again.

"Okay, class dismissed", said Ms. Bell. They went back to their room.

"Why didn't you punch me?", asked Tsubaki once they were back in their room, "I had to run twice because of you".

"I didn't want to hurt you", said Maka.

"You had no problem with that earlier", said Tsubaki.

"I'm sorry", said Maka, "I had no idea that she would make you run again".

"It's okay", said Tsubaki.

"So we're not going to give Maka a swirlie?", asked Patty.

"No", said Liz.

"Why not?", asked Patty.

"Because when you gave Eruka a swirlie, we all got punished for it", said Liz.

"Say, does Ms. Bell do that often?", asked Maka.

"She always does it when there's a new girl, like you", said Liz, "sometimes she uses it as a punishment". They were silent on the way to the cafeteria, because they weren't allowed to talk and the guards where already eying them suspiciously.

"And for what does she make you run the gauntlet?", asked Maka.

"If you didn't participate enough during team sports", said Liz. A bell rung which indicated that it was time for lunch. Since they were among the first in the cafeteria, they got their lunch rather quickly. They served a thick gooey mush. It smelled terrible, and after the first spoonful, Maka knew that it tasted terrible, too. But Maka still ate it, like all the others. After all, dinner could be something even worse, even though she hoped they would serve curd cheese again. They were done eating after ten minutes. Liz and Patty went into the yard, Tsubaki into the common room. Maka decided to follow Tsubaki, she didn't want to be with the girl who wanted to give her "swirlie", whatever that was.

"Say, what is a swirlie?", asked Maka once they were in the common room.

"I can show you if you want", said Tsubaki with a soft chuckle.

"No, just explain it", said Maka.

"It means pushing someone's head in the toilet and flushing it", said Tsubaki.

"And Patty actually did that to someone?", asked Maka.

"She did it to Eruka", said Tsubaki, "the worst part about it was that we all got punished for it, even though Liz and I had nothing to do with it".

"Does that mean that if Patty gave me a swirlie I would get punished for it?", asked Maka.

"Yes, probably", said Tsubaki, looking at the clock, she added, "work starts soon, we better hurry". They went through the building to the second floor of section D. There they went into what appeared to be a janitor's cupboard. Tsubaki handed Maka a mop and filled a bucket with water. Liz and Patty arrived. After everybody had their equipment, they started to clean their assigned area. Maka was worried that their work might get checked, so she was very throughout. Dr. Gorgon came by, looked around and praised their work. They finished ten minutes before classes started, so they went back to their room. Maka picked up the materials she would need over the afternoon.

"Giraffe!", yelled Patty. Maka looked at her irritated.

"Sorry, she does this since we've been shown an image of a giraffe in geography class", said Liz.

"What's a giraffe?", asked Maka.


	9. Math class

"It's a four legged animal with a very long neck", said Liz. Maka still couldn't quite imagine what a giraffe looked like, she didn't knew of any animal that matched this description. Tsubaki asked whether Maka could find the way to political education herself, before she excused herself with the phrase "see you in political education". Maka wondered what Tsubaki was up to. But then she assumed that Tsubaki might want to look up something in the library or something. Maka wasn't really worried, anyway. A few minutes later, she decided to head to political education as well.

Ms. Berger continued her lecture about the tax code. Maka was bored out of her mind, but she still paid attention and wrote down every boring detail. Patty seemed to be much less attentive, out of the corner of her eye, Maka could see that Patty was only taking notes while Ms. Berger looked in her direction. At the end of class, Ms Berger asked how much a family with a yearly income of fifty Wyoming pfennig would pay as taxes. Maka raised her hand.

"Yes, Maka?", asked Ms. Berger. Maka stood up.

"Five pfennig", said Maka.

"Anybody else?", asked Ms. Berger. This terrified Maka. Was her answer incorrect? Would she get beaten on her hand? No one raised their hand.

"That is correct", said Ms. Berger, "As homework I would like you to do exercise one to ten on page one hundred and ninety, if you haven't already done it. Then exercises three, five and six on page one hundred and ninety five. We'll also write a test on Monday, so study. Class dismissed". They left the room and went to art class. It was taught by a young woman, who introduced herself as Ms. Jackson. Maka took her seat and took out her art materials. A drawing pad. Ms. Jackson told them to continue their drawing. Maka looked over to her classmates, they were drawing a tree.

"The assignment is to draw that tree over there, Maka", said Ms. Jackson, pointing at a tree visible from outside the window. Maka wondered whether she should include the thick iron bars in the drawing and then call it "glimpse of freedom". But she didn't think Ms. Jackson would react favorably to such a painting. So Maka decided to leave the bars out. At the end of class they were told to hand their drawings in, but Maka's wasn't finished yet. After they had handed their drawings in, they were allowed to leave, they went to math class right away. The math teacher was a black haired middle aged woman with a pair of round glasses, playing around with the cane. She bend it in one direction, until she had formed a loop, before releasing it, upon which it swooshed back into it's original position.

"Excuse me, ma'am?", said Maka.

"What is?", asked the math teacher.

"I'm new here, where can I sit?", asked Maka.

"Over there", said the math teacher, pointing at an empty desk with her cane, "I'm Ms. Metzger, by the way". Maka sat down, a minute before Ms. Metzger started her lesson.

"Open your book on page one hundred and thirty seven", ordered Ms. Metzger. Looking at her material, Maka realized that she must have forgotten her book in her room. But how could this happen? Maybe it was because of Patty, when she had yelled "giraffe". A loud bang. Maka quickly looked up. Ms. Metzger had hit Maka's desk with her cane, looking sternly at Maka.

"Where's your book, Maka?", asked Ms. Metzger. Maka stammered. Everybody was looking at her. What should she tell her math teacher. That she had forgotten her book? No, that would get her into trouble. Maybe she could tell her that she hadn't been issued one. No, that would come out.

"I forgot it", stammered Maka, "in my room".

"Go and get it then", said Ms. Metzger. Maka hurriedly went to her room to retrieve the book. This went better than expected. A few minutes later, she arrived with her book back at the math classroom. She knocked at the door.

"Enter", said Ms. Metzger. Maka entered the room.

"Put the book on your table, then come to the front of the class", said Ms. Metzger, while pointing out an equation on the blackboard. Maka didn't know what she should expect. Maybe she would have to solve an equation on the blackboard.

"Bend over my desk, grab the far side of the table", said Ms. Metzger, tapping an empty section on the right of her desk. Maka positioned herself in front of it, bent over and grabbed the far side of the desk. She had a bad feeling about this. Ms. Metzger gently tapped Maka's buttocks with her cane.

"If you let go of the desk, you get extra strokes", said Ms. Metzger, lifting up Maka's skirt. Then she pulled down Maka's underwear. Maka realized that everybody could see her bare behind now. She wished she could turn invisible, so that no one could see her shame.

"You get six strokes", said Ms. Metzger. The cane swooshed through the air. Nothing happened. Then the cane swooshed through the air again. An extreme pain exploded as it hit her bare flesh. Maka screamed in pain. The cane had hit her, leaving a burning stripe on her behind. She heard it cut the air in two again. It hit her right below the first stripe. Maka screamed in pain as the first tear formed in her eyes. The cane was drawn back, and now it returned again, aggressively swooshing towards her. Maka hadn't stopped screaming after the second stroke, because the pain hadn't lessened even a little bit. When the third stroke hit her, she screamed louder than before, the pain pressed the screams from her lungs. Then she could already hear the fourth stroke approaching. It was hell to have to hear each individual stroke coming. She desperately wanted to reach back and block it, but she knew that if she did that, she would be in even more trouble. She managed to hold on. When the fourth stroke hit her, she dug her fingers deeper in the wood and screamed even louder. She would probably leave visible traces in the wood. When the fifth stroke came, her screaming lost volume. Her lung capacity was at an end. A brief gasp for air, before the impact of the fifth stroke drove it from her again. Maka resumed gasping. By the time the sixth stroke approached, she was screaming again. The sixth stroke landed diagonally across her buttocks, interfering with all its brethren. The pain of the cane hitting her skin was bad enough, but the pain of it hitting an area already hit was unbearable. It was as if a red hot iron was being pressed into her skin, Maka broke down sobbing.

"Sort your clothes and hand me your behavior card", said Ms. Metzger. Maka was sobbing to much to respond, but she reached into a pocked of her skirt and produced her behavior card. Maka pulled her underpants back up, while Ms. Metzger punched a hole into her behavior card. Maka straightened her skirt. She was only sniffling now. Ms. Metzger handed her the card back.

"Now go and stand in the corner, and don't you even dare move a muscle", ordered Ms. Metzger. Maka went to the corner and stood in it. She kept her hands on her side. The pain in her buttocks was tremendous, even after the caning was already over. Ms. Metzger continued her lesson, Maka was unable to follow. Her mind was occupied with the pain, and nothing else. She wanted desperately to soothe it. Maybe she could massage it away, rub it out. But what if Ms. Metzger looked at her in exactly this moment. She couldn't risk it. She stopped sniffling. Over time, the pain slowly decreased, from a red hot unbearable burning to a steady yet bearable pain. Maka was even able to follow Ms. Metzger's lecture. She continued to stand in the corner, perfectly still. Ms. Metzger was describing a graph. Maka couldn't understand what she was talking about, but it would probably make more sense to her if she was able to see the graph. A bell rang.

"Homework are exercises three to seven on page one hundred and thirty eight", said Ms. Metzger, "Maka stays here and cleans the board, class dismissed". Maka assumed that she could come out of the corner now. She grabbed a sponge and began to clean the board.

"Maka, I want to see your notes from today tomorrow", said Ms. Metzger, "and if they're not to my satisfaction, you'll get another six strokes". How could Maka show her the notes, she couldn't take any because she was standing in the corner?


	10. Library

"Yes, ma'am", said Maka.

"You may leave now", said Ms. Metzger. Maka hurried to her room. She had plenty of homework to get done. And where should she get these notes from. She knew that she had to get them. She didn't want to receive another caning. When she arrived in her room, her roommates were already hard at work on their homework.

"Can one of you give me her math notes to copy?", asked Maka.

"Sure", said Patty, Liz and Tsubaki in unison"take mine". Maka decided to take Tsubaki's notes, she seemed to be the best at math. When Maka sat down on her chair, her behind started to hurt again. She decided that she would do her homework while standing upright. She first copied Tsubaki's notes, which were done in very neat handwriting and aesthetically pleasing. Then she started with her political education homework. Exercise one on page one hundred and ninety. At least Maka already knew the answer, so she got through the first ten exercises rather quickly.

"How far are you?", she asked her roommates.

"I've just started with my science homework", said Tsubaki, "and please shut up, we could get in serious trouble because of you".

"Giraffe", yelled Patty.

"I'm stuck on exercise six", said Liz. The next three exercises were rather difficult. Maka had to think quite a lot to solve them. After political education, she turned her attention to history, since it would be the first subject after political education tomorrow. Then she got started with her math homework, she did not want to be on Ms. Metzger's bad side. Tsubaki tidied up her desk and went to lie down in her bunk, above Maka's bunk. The math turned out to be quite tricky, Maka had to admit that she did not have the slightest idea as to how she should do it. She read her copy of Tsubaki's notes again. She went back to the problem, and this time, she was able to solve some. After she had finished, she went over them again. Liz finished her homework and left the room, followed by Tsubaki. The last subject Maka started working on was history.

"I'm done, see you later, airhead!", said Patty, leaving the room before Maka could think of a good comeback. Maka eventually finished her homework, a few seconds before the bell indicated that it was time for dinner. Maka went to dinner, to find her roommates already sitting at a table.

"You done with your homework, airhead?", asked Patty.

"That's not nice, Patty", said Liz.

"I got my homework done", said Maka.

"Well, this is the nicest time of the day", said Liz, "free time". Maka sat down to eat her dinner, which caused her pain, but if she ate her dinner standing up, everybody would be able to see that she had been punished.

"Ms. Metzger is mean", commented Maka.

"At least that's only your first strike", said Tsubaki, "you're still far away from a meeting with Medusa".

"Actually, it's my second strike", said Maka.

"When did you get your first?", asked Tsubaki.

"Yesterday", said Maka.

"You couldn't behave for even one day?", asked Liz.

"How many strikes do you have?", asked Maka.

"One", said Liz.

"She reported to Dr. Gorgon's office last week", said Tsubaki, "she normally has more".

"You're not a saint, either", said Liz.

"Okay, I currently have two", admitted Tsubaki.

"I have none", said Patty proudly.

"How can that be?", asked Liz, "you must have earned one yesterday".

"That was my third", said Patty. Maka had finished her meal, a bit later than her roommates, so they brought their dirty dishes back. Then they argued about what to do. Maka wanted to go to the library, Patty wanted to go to the yard, Liz wanted to go to the common room and Tsubaki wanted to go to their room. Since they couldn't reach a consensus, they all went separate ways. Tsubaki offered to show Maka the way to the library, but Maka politely refused. The library was quite large, much larger than what Maka's old school tried to pass off as a library, a closet filled with books to be exact. The librarian, a strict looking elderly woman, was busy re-shelving books. Maka went into the fiction section and started browsing. She had never seen so many books in one place. She couldn't decide on any books, so she just grabbed one book from the shelf and looked for a good place to read. She eventually found a quite corner of the library, where she lied down on her stomach and read.

The book told the story of a man who lived a long time ago, a very long time. His name was Hannibal. He lived such a long time ago that they didn't have guns back then, only swords and bow and arrow. He was a general for a city called Carthage, which was at war with another city called Rome. But the Carthaginians had a secret weapon, elephants. Maka didn't know what an elephant was, but from the books description, she imagined it to be something like a tank. A tank on legs. It probably fired projectiles out of its trunk, like a tank. Unlike modern tanks, the elephants had large tusks, so they had a melee capabilities, too, Whereas modern tanks just roll over anything dumb enough to get in the way. But it made sense, if the elephant was a tank with legs, it couldn't roll over things, because rolling requires wheels, or in case of a tank, threads.

Maka looked up and noticed that it was ten minutes before curfew. She should get on her way now, she didn't want to find out what the punishment for missing curfew was. Maybe she could check the book out. The librarian was at her desk.

"Excuse me, ma'am", said Maka, handing her the book, "I would like to check this book out".

"Number?", asked the librarian.

"It's...", stammered Maka, looking at her number tag, "thirty-seven-B-three-fifteen".

"You're new?", asked the librarian.

"Yes, ma'am", said Maka.

"Then let me explain you the rules", said the librarian, "you have to return the book within two weeks from today. If you don't, you get one stroke with the cane for each day it's overdue, up to thirty, plus a strike on your behavior card. If you lose or destroy the book, you get solitary".

"I understand, ma'am", said Maka.

"I'll write your number down, and you're good to go", said the librarian, "have fun".

"Thank you, ma'am", said Maka and left the library. Back in her room, she laid down on a bed and began reading. A minute later, the room was locked. Maka continued reading throughout the next hour. Apparently the war between Rome and Carthage went very much in favor of Rome, so the Carthagians had to do something. They had their elephants, but they couldn't use them against Rome properly, because Rome was to far away. They couldn't properly ship them over, so the only plausible route was over the alps. Everybody thought that was impossible, but Hannibal thought otherwise. He convinced the leaders of Carthage to give him troops and elephants. Then he sailed into Spain, from where he marched through Europe until he eventually arrived at the alps. The author wrote that Hannibal knew that it would be difficult, but that he would not give up. Then a bell signaled that it was five minutes before lights-out, so Maka put her book away and got ready for bed. She got into bed lying on her stomach. Then the lights went out.


	11. Tsubaki gets a test back

When Maka awoke the next day, her legs were still sore from running yesterday, she had several bruises from running the gauntlet, and the welts where Ms. Metzger had caned her were still hurting and visible, even though it was bearable to sit down now. Maka made her bed quickly and carefully, got dressed in her gym clothes and went to morning exercise. This time, she couldn't keep up with Tsubaki for even two laps. She saw one of the counselors run after her during the fifth lap, so she ran as fast as she could. During the sixth lap the counselor made her cane swoosh through the air, which motivated Maka to run even faster, she was even able to bring some distance between her and the counselor. But during lap number seven, the counselor began catching up. Maka desperately tried to run faster, but she couldn't outrun the counselor. During lap number eight the counselor was running next to her. Maka desperately wanted to avoid the cane, but she couldn't run any faster. The cane swooshed through the air, hitting Maka's still sore behind, causing her scream in pain. Maka ran faster again, as fast as she could.

When the whistle blowing signalized the end of morning exercise, Maka stopped running. Her vision became purple and she felt as if everything was spinning around her. She took one step, then another, then she collapsed on the floor. There was a sharp pain in her scalp. She was being pulled up, by her hair. Maka looked to see who had pulled her up. It was Ms. Bell. Fortunately, Ms. Bell let go off her hair once she was standing on her feet again.

"I'll overlook this for now", said Ms. Bell, "but if you make your gym uniform dirty like this again, I'll give you an extra work assignment. Is that understood".

"Yes, ma'am", said Maka.

"Good, now go get a shower", ordered Ms. Bell.

"Yes, ma'am" said Maka and went back to her room. After she had undressed, she looked down on her behind. The six strokes she received yesterday were still clearly visible, although they had faded, plus the one from today. It occurred to her that everybody would be able to see the marks of her chastisement in the shower.

"What's the punishment for failing that cleanliness inspection?", asked Maka.

"Six strokes with the cane, plus a strike on your card", said Tsubaki. Maka couldn't afford to get a third strike, she knew that it would be bad. She wrapped herself in her towel and went to the shower room. Once there, she positioned herself facing the room, so that they would not see her behind. Turning on the water required her to bend her arm backwards. Then she saw Crona enter the room. Crona was looking at her before she got into the shower herself. It occurred to Maka that simply by hiding her behind, she would show everybody that she had been punished. Maka felt the other inmates gazes as they entered and left the shower. She turned around, that way she would at least not be able to see them looking at her. After she was done cleaning herself, she went back to her room and got dressed. After roll call and breakfast, she arrived in political education. Ms. Berger conducted the cleanliness inspection, which Maka passed, before she took attendance and collected the homework.

"I corrected Monday's test, the good news is that no one failed", said Ms. Berger, picking up a stack of papers on her desk. Then she proceeded to hand out the test, commenting on the inmate's performance while she did so. "Linda, B, you can do better. Marie, A, good work. Ann, C minus, I'm disappointed...", and so on, "Tsubaki, D, I'm very disappointed, worst score in class", a little later, "Patricia, A plus, best score in the class, keep up the good work", Liz' jaw hung wide open as Ms. Berger said this. "Elizabeth, D plus, you should try to be more like your sister. And close your mouth, before insects fly in".

"I give you five minutes of a break to discuss the results", said Ms. Berger. Liz went up to Patty.

"How did you do that?", asked Liz, "you didn't even study".

"I'm a genius", said Patty, "I don't need to study".

"No, you're not", said Liz, "all your other grades are horrible".

"Is it true that she once turned in a picture of a giraffe instead of her math test?", asked Ann. A crowd was forming around Patty.

"I still scored better on that test than Liz", said Patty proudly.

"But you still failed", said Liz.

"Can I see your test?", asked Ann.

"Yes, sure", said Patty, handing Ann her test. Maka wanted to see the test, too, so she positioned herself behind Ann. Patty's handwriting and spelling were horrible, unacceptable even for a first grader. But apparently Ms. Berger didn't grade those things. The first question was about edict two hundred and twenty three, about how it served to prevent smuggling. Maka noticed that she wouldn't be able to answer this question herself, and she couldn't decipher Patty's answer. But she could read what Ms. Berger had written under it. "Please improve handwriting".

"How is anybody supposed to even read that?", asked Ann.

"Well, Ms. Berger can read it", said Patty.

"I don't understand it", said Liz, "how can my sister be so good at political education when she's horrible in everything else?".

"Break is over, everybody back on their seats", said Ms. Berger. On the way back to her seat, Maka noticed that Tsubaki had been sitting silently at her desk.

"Tsubaki, Liz, Marianne, Lili, Ann", called Ms. Berger, Maka noticed that those were the stundents who had scored D, except Ann who had scored C minus, "bring your behavior cards to the front of the class". The five girls did as they were told, bringing their behavior cards to Ms. Berger, who punched a hole in each of them, before sending all the girls except Tsubaki back to their places. Ms. Berger made Tsubaki face the class. Then she took a headband out of a drawer in her desk. It was a leather headband with donkey ears attached to it. She put it on Tsubaki's head, making it look as if she had donkey ears.

"You may laugh at her now", said Ms. Berger. Everybody started making fun of Tsubaki, who slowly began making her way back to her seat. Maka didn't know whether she should participate or not. Somebody spit at Tsubaki, another one threw a ball of paper at her. Names were being called, most of them insulting Tsubaki's intelligence. Even Liz and Patty were participating, Liz was even making a paper ball to throw at Tsubaki. Maka figured that this was probably like running the gauntlet yesterday, where non participation resulted in the punishment becoming worse. Maybe she would be punished herself if she didn't mock Tsubaki. Maka rolled up a paper ball and threw it, hitting Tsubaki in the head. Then she yelled: "You can't do anything right, airhead!". Once Tsubaki had reached her seat, Ms. Berger started her lecture. The students stopped mocking Tsubaki, and everybody was taking notes, until the class was over.

"Class dismissed", said Ms. Berger, "Tsubaki has to clean up the room".


	12. Did Patty cheat?

"I can help you", offered Maka.

"No", said Ms. Berger, "and if you don't leave now, you and Tsubaki get six strokes with the cane each". Maka hurriedly left the classroom, she didn't want to get her friend into even more trouble. A few minutes later, Tsubaki came out of the room, she was still wearing the donkey ears.

"Thanks for waiting for me", said Tsubaki.

"So where should we go now?", asked Maka.

"I'll have to go to Medusa, because of my behavior card", said Tsubaki. It occurred to Maka that Tsubaki had just received her third strike. Maka accompanied Tsubaki, but she didn't know about what they should talk. She should probably try to cheer Tsubaki up somewhat, but how? What kind of punishment was Tsubaki facing, anyway. The walk down to Medusa's office seemed to take forever, yet it was over much too fast. Tsubaki knocked on the door.

"Yes?", said Dr. Gorgon from behind the door. Tsubaki slowly opened the door.

"I hope it won't be too bad", whispered Maka, "Good luck".

"Thank you", said Tsubaki, entering the office and closing the door behind her. Maka began to walk away.

"What brings you here?", asked Medusa.

"I have three strikes on my behavior card, ma'am", said Tsubaki. Maka turned around a corner before Medusa replied. The conversation became incomprehensible. A part of Maka wanted to go back to eavesdrop on them, but most of her preferred not to find out what happened in there. The way things were going, it would only be a matter of time until she would have to find out first hand. She wanted to hold this moment off for as long as she could. Maka walked through the halls aimlessly, but she eventually ended up in the common room, where she found Liz sitting at a table, supporting her head with her arm.

"Hi Maka", said Liz.

"You seem to be in thought", said Maka.

"I just don't understand", said Liz, "how can my sister, even though she fails miserably in everything else, be so good in Political education?".

"Maybe she's some kind of genius", said Maka.

"Then she would do better in other subjects as well", said Liz, getting up from her seat, "I tell you, somethings fishy".

"Well, maybe that test was really easy, and everybody else had just studied something wrong", said Maka with a shrug as they proceeded to walk towards history class.

"Are you saying we study wrong for every single test?", asked Liz. They left the common room. Maka looked around. No guards or teachers in sight.

"You're right", whispered Maka, "there's either something going on, or Patty is just very good in political education".

"I tell you, she's cheating somehow", said Liz.

"You're probably right", said Maka. A teacher entered the hallway, Maka and Liz couldn't continue their conversation. They had to keep quite until they reached the history classroom. Tsubaki was sitting at her desk, still wearing the donkey ears.

"Maybe Patty sabotaged Tsubaki", said Liz.

"Why would she do that?", asked Maka.

"She probably switched the tests", said Liz.

"I don't know, unless Ms. Berger is blind, she would see through such a ruse", said Maka. They then had to sit down, because class started. Maka barely paid attention to history class. It was not that the lecture was boring, she was just thinking about what Liz had said about Patty, who was currently staring into space on the other side of the room. But how could Patty have cheated on her test? Maka remembered how, back in her village, her neighbor once cheated off her paper during a test. He didn't get caught, in fact, not even Maka noticed it. Maybe this was Patty's secret. But then it occurred to Maka that there was a slight problem. The boy who had cheated off Maka's test got caught. He had copied Maka's answers completely, which tipped off the teacher. In the end, both Maka and the boy got a punished for cheating. They got an F and had to spend the entire afternoon in detention. When Maka came home that day, her father was not exactly pleased about the news that his daughter had cheated on a test. Maka didn't enjoy thinking back to this day. But just like the test Maka took several years ago, this test contained essay questions, so if Patty had copied from her neighbors, Ms. Berger would have found out. Unless she went to the extra effort of rewriting the answers in her own words. But Maka just didn't think that cheating and getting away with it was realistic here. After all, this wasn't a one room school with over a hundred children in one room, with most of them being in different grades. Here the teacher only had one class to watch over, so unless she was distracted, cheating would be completely crazy, and getting away with it a miracle.

"Maka", called Ms. Harris. Maka stood up.

"What where the symptoms of the first Kortig's plague?", asked Ms. Harris. Maka didn't even have the slightest idea.

"Nausea", guessed Maka, "followed by death".

"Cold like symptoms like sneezing and a stuffy nose, followed by mental degeneration and internal and external hemorrhaging", said Ms. Harris, "stretch out your hand, Maka". Maka knew what would come now. She didn't want to stretch out her hand, but she didn't want to think about what would happen to her if she didn't cooperate. Once her hand was sufficiently far out, Ms. Harris brought her cane down on Maka's hand. Maka resisted the urge to pull her hand away. The pain was terrible, it contorted Maka's expression.

**Thanks to PandaMustache for inspiring some of this chapter.  
**


	13. Math pop quiz

Maka decided to listen to rest of the lecture, she would probably have been able to answer Ms. Harris question if she had paid attention. Ms. Harris continued her lecture about Kortig's plagues. After the first plague, which blew over relatively quickly, the terrorist organization only known as Prof. Kortig und Neffe Gentechnik GmbH, unleashed a second and a third plague. In order to contain the effects of the plagues, the governments of Europe instituted a organization known as the plague battalion. They're uniform consisted of a black cloak and a gas mask. The cloak bore the emblem of the plague battalion, a skull on their right shoulder. In later outbreaks they would wear a number stating which outbreak it was. The fatality rate amongst them was extremely high, and joining the plague battalion was generally seen as suicide. However, they had very good hazard pay, but most of them didn't life long enough to get paid, in which case their salary was handed to one of their relatives. Most of the plague battalion was therefore made up of men and women who wanted to make it possible for their children to lead a good life, as even a single month's salary was enough to support a child from birth until he had earned a college degree. Ms. Harris then reminded them of the fact that West Wyoming was the only country in the world where education was free. In all other countries, they would have to pay for it. Which was yet another reason to consider West Wyoming to be the best country in the world. They should be glad that they were here, in Pinedale juvenile reformative camp for girls, because it showed them that the President hadn't given up on them, instead he devoted resources to bringing them back to the right path. Ms. Harris saw this as a good opportunity to make them recite the pledge of allegiance once again. Then she assigned them a lot of homework before the bell rung, after which she dismissed the class.

The next subject on the schedule was local studies, Maka had basically no idea what to expect. They arrived in the classroom a few minutes early, so Maka decided to talk to Tsubaki.

"What did Medusa do to you?", asked Maka.

"Nothing yet", said Tsubaki, "she just told me to come to her office right after classes end today and gave me a new behavior card".

"How do you think did Patty manage to ace her test?", asked Maka.

"I don't know", said Tsubaki.

"I think she cheated", said Maka.

"Did you ever get the top score on a test?", asked Tsubaki

"Yes", said Maka.

"Did you cheat?", asked Tsubaki.

"No, of course not, I'm a good student", said Maka.

"Then why do you assume that Patty cheated just because she scored best of class?", asked Tsubaki. The local studies teacher entered the room. Maka went up to her and asked where she should sit. The teacher, her name was Ms. Anderson, assigned her a desk.

Local studies was about the plants and animals which were found around Pinedale, and their biology. The main focus of the lecture were birds. Ms. Anderson explained the feathers of several birds in detail, especially the difference between a gray raven and a gray crow. She showed a slide with both birds, and they looked exactly alike. Maka wondered if Ms. Anderson was being serious, or if she had devoted a large part of her lecture to a joke. The homework was to write an essay about the difference between these two. Maka was lucky she had taken notes, now she wouldn't have find any differences herself, but could just write the ones down the teacher had already listed.

On the way to math class, Maka contemplated how she could figure out if Patty had cheated or not, and possibly put a stop to it. Since she studied for her grades, she didn't want to allow somebody to score through academic dishonesty, it would make Maka's effort seem less valuable, and it would hurt the cheater as well, because she wouldn't learn anything. But how could Maka put a stop to it?

"Surprise", said Ms. Metzger once her class started, "We'll be writing a pop quiz today, and by 'we', I mean you". She handed out the quiz, telling her class "Don't touch it, don't turn it". After she had finished handing them out, she said: "Turn them over and start writing. Once you're finished, you can go". Maka looked at the quiz. The only thing to understand at first was where to put her name, and her number next to it. Maka read through the questions. Quite a lot of them seemed to be referring yesterday's lecture. But half of them asked for stuff Maka had never heard of. Then there was "Z" like thingy, but unlike a "Z" the diagonal slash had a bent in the middle, and started on the left side of the letter. From there it went right and downwards, until about halfway, after which it went left and downwards again. Above the sign was a four, under it stood "f=1". Next to the sign stood a three. Maka had no idea what this meant. She raised her hand.

"No questions", said Ms. Metzger.

"Please", begged Maka desperately.

"One more word, and I take your test away and give you a F", said Ms. Metzger. Maka tried to figure out what she should do now. Cheat? No, she was an honest student. But this pop quiz was unfair, it asked for something Maka couldn't possibly know, therefore it was just fair if she cheated. But what if she would get caught? Maka wrote down three as her answer. The rest of the questions were similar. At least Maka was sure that she could solve some of them correctly, she thought. This quiz was the most unfair quiz Maka ever took.

"Hand in your quizzes, then turn in your homework on the way out", said Ms. Metzger, "And Maka, I want to see your notes, too". Maka handed in her quiz, she was sure that she had flunked it, making this the second exam she had ever failed. Then she handed Ms. Harris the notes she had copied from Tsubaki.

"You copied Tsubaki's notes?", asked Ms. Metzger. Maka didn't know what to say, she only knew that she was in trouble. And Tsubaki too, probably. She had to think of a convincing lie. And fast. But what if Ms. Metzger wouldn't believe her? Maka panicked.

**Dear readers, **

**I won't be able to post on the weekend**

**With kind regards,  
PicUnrelated**


	14. Latisha

"Yes, ma'am", said Maka, realizing that this was the worst thing to say.

"Well, these notes are okay", said Ms. Metzger, "you can go to lunch now". Maka was relived.

"But what about the quiz?", asked Maka.

"What about it?", asked Ms. Metzger.

"I only arrived to days ago", said Maka, "I wasn't there when you discussed most of that stuff".

"You still had time to catch up", said Ms. Metzger.

"That's not fair", said Maka.

"Go to lunch now", ordered Ms. Metzger.

"It's not fair to make me take a quiz on stuff I haven't learned yet", said Maka.

"You want a caning?", asked Ms. Metzger.

"No, ma'am", said Maka.

"Then go", said Ms. Metzger. Maka left the classroom, defeated. She couldn't accept that she would fail a quiz she could not have passed. She would have to do something, but what? Seeing that she was already late for lunch, she decided to go now, lest she go hungry for the day. In the canteen, she met up with her roommates once again. Tsubaki,who was still wearing the donkey ears, was already leaving, Maka could see quite a lot of eyes following her.

"This quiz was so unfair", complained Maka.

"Tell me about it", said Liz, "I know I failed".

"Me too", laughed Patty.

"I didn't even have an opportunity to study for it", said Maka.

"Nobody did", said Liz, "it was a pop quiz".

"I wasn't even there when this Z-like thingy was discussed", said Maka.

"It denotes some kind of sum", said Liz, "but that's all I know".

"I can't believe it", said Maka, "this will be the first test I fail".

"Well, you're gonna fail a lot more tests", said Liz.

"I don't want to fail this test", said Maka, "and I will fight this injustice".

"There's no point", said Liz, "You failed, and that's that".

"Where do I complain about that", said Maka.

"I guess Dr. Gorgon or the commander", said Liz.

"The commander?", asked Maka, intrigued.

"She runs this institution", said Liz, "she's also the only person here with the authority to sentence you to death".

"Really?", asked Maka in disbelief.

"She had a young blonde girl hanged", laughed Patty, "for complaining about her math test". Maka was getting second thoughts about complaining.

"She's messing with you", said Liz, "I haven't seen any execution in my time here".

"Don't lie", said Patty, "that's why Maka's or roommate now, the girl before here got hanged".

"So she won't have me hanged for complaining about that unfair quiz?", asked Maka.

"I don't think so", said Liz.

"Did anyone ever get hanged?", asked Maka.

"I heard that there was once a girl, Latisha", said Liz, "her number was sixty seven D I think four, or was it two, no, it was four, point something. She was rather quite, rarely had to hand in her behavior card, took notes in class, always did her homework. You know, typical good girl. One day, during a history test, the teacher caught her cheating off her classmate. I don't know what happened to her then, but I simply assume that they used the standard punishment for cheating, whatever that was back then. I don't know, but I think it involved solitary. After she got out of solitary, the first thing she did was to ask her history teacher to be allowed to change seats. But she was denied. On the next test, she was once again caught cheating

Over all of this, Latisha developed a profound hatred for her neighbor, Rachel, the one she had cheated off. Nobody knew it at that time, they all though that Latisha was to good and too kind to actually hate anybody. But then, one day, a staff member, I think it was a counselor, who soon after retired for health reasons, reported that her medicine was missing. It was important, rare medication, hard to get. It was also quite dangerous if overdosed, or even if given to somebody who wasn't used to it. Since the staff member would die without her medication, a shakedown was ordered immediately".

"What's a shakedown?", asked Maka.

"They search every cell and every inmate", said Liz, "anyway, they then searched every room and every inmate. At first the guards assumed that this shakedown was purely formal, that they would either not find the medication, or find it in the room of one of the counselor's wards, since it could be possible that the counselor had left it there. Eventually, they found the medication in Latisha's bunk. She and her roommates were immediately interrogated, since they weren't among that counselor's wards. At first they got nothing out of them. But then, they figured out that it was Latisha. As far as I know, a guard recalled seeing her remove something from the counselor's room.

The next day, Latisha didn't show up for morning exercise, roll-call, breakfast or classes, but during roll-call, a general assembly was announced for after classes. Then, after classes, everybody went into the yard, for the general assembly, except, you guessed it, Latisha. Her name wasn't even called out while they were checking attendance. You might have already noticed, but there is a pulley on the northern wall of the yard and you know that on the wall under the pulley, there's a crank powered rope winch without a rope, right?". Maka nodded. "The inmates were surprised when the commander herself came to speak to them, as the commander is rarely seen outside of her office. Before the commander began to talk, two guards brought a girl into the yard, Latisha, her hands cuffed behind her back. A third guard, she was wearing a black hood and a black cloak, she probably wasn't even a guard, was carrying a rope. This executioner then proceeded to put the rope into the winch and threw the other end over the pulley, checking to make sure that in ran smoothly in the pulley. Then she put the other end, it was a noose, around Latisha's neck. The commander then spoke, she explained that Latisha had stolen the counselor's vital medication, and would now die for it. She concluded this speech with the words, 'Hoist her up!'. The executioner then proceeded to turn the crank, which slowly resulted in Latisha losing contact to the ground. The executioner stopped with Latisha's feet a foot of the floor. They say that she thrashed around for quite some time before she finally died. But the story doesn't end there. A week after Latisha's execution, the inmate she had supposedly cheated off became sick, so she was placed in the infirmary. She got worse and worse, and the doctor couldn't help her, so she was transferred to a hospital. She had never been seen or heard from ever again".


	15. Saalschlacht

"We're late for work", said Patty. Looking at the clock, they saw that Patty was right, they were late for work. Once they had arrived at the janitorial cupboard, they found Tsubaki already waiting there, still wearing the donkey ears. Maka wondered what would happen if Tsubaki took them off. Maka figured that it would be bad. They finished cleaning a short time ahead of schedule, and went to political education. The lecture was very complex and hard to understand, and very boring, too. Maka found it hard not to fall asleep, but she still took notes. She would have to go over these notes later, she didn't want to end up taking a test on a lesson she only half understood. Looking at Patty, Maka saw that she was only taking notes when Ms. Berger, who was walking through the class during her lecture, when she wasn't writing on the board, looked at her. Maka wondered how Patty could score so high on the tests, even though she barely paid any attention. Maka was sure that Patty cheated somehow, just how. Maka tried to work out a plan to figure out how Patty did it. Then Maka felt a a sharp pain on her skull as somebody hit her on the head.

"Pay attention", said Ms. Berger, "the next time it'll be a caning". Maka apologized and resumed taking notes. After class was over, Maka realized, to her horror, that they had gym class now. Since skipping it wasn't really an option, she got dressed in her gym clothes and went to class.

"Everybody, run a bit for warmup", ordered Ms. Bell. They all ran laps around the gym. After they were done with warmup, Ms. Bell announced what she had planned for this lesson.

"Today we'll do something fun", said Ms. Bell, "Maka! Can you guess?".

"How about catch?", asked Maka.

"Wrong, ten pushups", ordered Ms. Bell, "Does anybody else have a guess?", without waiting for an answer, she added, "Saalschlacht".

"Yay, Saalschlacht!", yelled Patty, "Write your will, Crona, I'll break your neck!".

"I applaud your enthusiasm", said Ms. Bell. Maka finished the pushups and got back up.

"I forgot to count, Maka, start over", said Ms. Bell, "the dunce and Patty are going to pick teams".

"Maka", picked Tsubaki.

"Liz", picked Patty. They continued until there was only Crona left, who was then forced to enter Tsubaki's team. Ms. Bell then lead them into a rather large room, which had a smaller room with four entrances and several windows in the middle. The windows lacked any sort of class pane.

"Explain the rules to Maka, dunce", said Ms. Bell handing Tsubakia bunch of red armbands, "Also, your team is first to assault".

"The rules are simple", said Tsubaki while handing out the armbands, "we have to storm the room in the center there. We can enter through the doors and the windows. The other team tries to stop us, any questions?".

"And how do we do that, how do we get them out?", asked Maka.

"We don't have to worry about that, if we all get in, we've won", said Tsubaki.

"Get ready", ordered Ms. Bell. Tsubaki's team took their positions in front of the room, then they huddled together.

"At first, we'll all assault the front door", said Tsubaki, pointing in Maka's direction, she added "Then you five will break off, sneak around and come from behind".

"I've got a better idea", said a blonde girl, "At first, we'll all assault the front door, then you five break off and come in from behind".

"That's a much better idea", said a redhead, "let's do it".

"Are you ready yet?", asked Ms. Bell, angrily.

"Yes, ma'am", shouted Tsubaki's team in unison.

"Then go!", ordered Ms. Bell, "Attack! Attack! Attack!". With that, it started. As planned, the team first assaulted the front door. Everybody rushed in there. The other team pushed back. Maka decided to stay back. She pushed her teammates forward. Another girl tapped her on the shoulder. It was time to break off. Maka crouched down and followed the rest of the strike force. Then kept to the wall, so that they couldn't be seen from out of the windows. They quickly ran past the side door. Most of the other team, they wore yellow armbands, seemed to be focused on the front, even though there were some staying back, looking out for attacks from behind, but mostly that nobody climbed in through the window. They reached the back entrance.

"I don't think they've seen us yet", whispered the redheaded girl, whose name Maka remembered to be Hanna.

"Yeah", whispered another girl, known as Shannon, "three of us attack from this side, and two from the other.

"Good", whispered Hanna, who quickly ran over to the other side of the door along with Shannon.

"On the count of three", whispered Hanna, "one, two,..."

"Three!", yelled Patty. A hand grabbed Maka by her hair. Maka felt a sharp pain as she was being pulled up. By her hair. An arm was wound around her throat. Maka thrashed around desperately. It was getting hard to breathe. Maka realized that she was in a headlock. She had to get out. She swung her arms backwards, in hope of hitting her assailant. Shannon grabbed the arm. Then she pulled. Maka slipped out of the headlock. Looking around, Maka could see who had grabbed her. It was Patty, who was leaning out of the window. Maka quickly got up and helped Shannon pull Patty's arm. Patty pulled with all her might. Shannon let go off her. Maka did the same. Patty flew backwards. There were three other girls from the other team fighting with three of her team in the doorway. Maka spotted a hole. She quickly slipped through, like an eel. She got into a full sprint. Someone tripped her. The next thing Maka knew, her hair was being pulled again. It was Patty. Liz soon joined. Together, they dragged Maka by her hair, too quickly for Maka to do anything against it. The pain was intense, but Maka didn't scream. Liz and Patty shoved her head first through a window. Maka got up again, determined to try again. Then she noticed that Liz and Patty had stolen her pants. Ms. Bell blew a whistle from the other side of the room.


	16. Patty's desk

The class quickly formed a line. Maka wanted to retrieve her pants first, but she feared that if she let Ms. Bell wait, Ms. Bell would punish her. So Maka postioned herself in line with the others.

"Where's your pants, Maka?", asked Ms. Bell.

"I lost them when I was pushed out of the window", said Maka.

"You can pick them up after class", said Ms. Bell, "Let's see, the assaulting team lost, and none of you managed to get into the building and stay there. I must say I'm quite disappointed. The defending team may leave, the losers run laps around the gym". With that, half the class left, the other half began running laps, Maka included. Maka noticed that everybody was staring at her as they ran past her. Ms. Bell shouted at her, threatening that if she didn't run faster, she would have a very unpleasant experience. Maka didn't need to be told twice. She ran as fast as she could. A few laps later, Maka was completely out of breath. But at least Ms. Bell was threatening Crona now. A look at the clock told Maka that she had ten minutes of class time left to go. Ms. Bell ordered them to stop running, only to order them to do pushups instead. After she had made each of them do twenty pushups, she made them lie flat on their stomachs. Then she ordered them to stand up and jump into the air, straight as a candle. She told them to repeat this exercise until she said otherwise. Maka thought it was easy at first, but as she continued to jump, she found it to be quite tedious. By the time the bell rang, Maka was currently jumping in the air, her entire body was hurting, her legs from the running and the jumping, her arms from the pushups, and she didn't now what caused the pain in her torso.

Maka retrieved her pants and went back to her room, where she quickly changed into her uniform. She couldn't loose any time, she only had five minutes to get to her next class, astronomy. Maka and Tsubaki ran there, at least for the parts where no teacher or guard could see them. They arrived a minute late. But to their luck, the teacher was late, too. Maka had to think of her teammates. Some of them had a different schedule from hers. If they didn't manage to be in time, they probably wouldn't have the same luck. Even though, it was proably only Maka and Tsubaki who were late, because she had to retrieve her pants first. She was glad that Liz and Patty didn't hide them. Tsubaki was kind enough to wait for Maka, because Maka had no chance of locating the astronomy classroom in time otherwise. So her other teammates were probably on time. A short time after Maka and Tsubaki had arrived, the teacher arrived.

She looked rather young, much younger than she probably was. Her face looked like it belonged to a little girl rather than a grown woman. She was also rather small, only reaching Tsubaki's shoulder. The lecture was about different constellations, and the names of the individual stars. Maka took notes, even though she highly doubted that this knowledge would be useful to her. She also noted that most of the stars were named after the president, his name, followed by a number. Maka wondered how anyone was supposed to remember this. The teacher, her name was Ms. Brown, finished her lecture, before she gave them homework. But since class time wasn't all used up yet, she allowed them to start on their homework. Maka figured that while Ms. Brown's subject was boring and pointless, she was probably the nicest teacher in this institution. Maka managed to get quite a bit of work done before they were dismissed. Maka decided to accompany Tsubaki to Medusa's office. They didn't speak on their way there. Maka contemplated whether she would want to complain about the math pop quiz. Tsubaki knocked on Dr. Gorgon's door.

"Enter", said Dr. Gorgon.

"I'm here for my punishment", said Tsubaki, shyly.

"And Maka, your behavior card already full?", asked Dr. Gorgon.

"No, ma'am", said Maka, "I want to complain".

"About what?", asked Dr. Gorgon.

"Today we took a pop quiz in math", said Maka, "and most of the questions were about a subject I had never learned about".

"I'll see what I can do", said Dr. Gorgon, "now leave, unless you want a caning". Maka hurriedly left the room, closing the door behind her. As she walked away, she could hear Tsubaki scream in pain. Maka wondered how long it would take until it was her turn. The only thing she knew was that she probably wouldn't managed to avoid another strike for long, after all, she would probably get one for failing that math test.

Once back in her room, she got to work on her homework. She finished before Liz and Patty, wondering how long Tsubaki would get punished. Instead of getting up, she took out her political education notes and began to study for the test Ms. Berger had announced for Monday. Eventually Liz and Patty finished their homework and left. Maka took this as an opportunity to search Patty's stuff, maybe she would find proof that Patty cheated. She opened Patty's desk and began to dig around.

"What are you doing?", yelled Patty. Maka turned around.

"Nothing", stammered Maka.

"What were you doing in my desk?", asked Patty.

"Nothing", stammered Maka, "I was just looking, I'm sorry".

"It's okay", laughed Patty, grabbing Maka by the throat, bringing her into a headlock. Maka tried to fight back, but her struggling proved ineffectual. Patty dragged her into the corridor. No guard was in sight.

"Please let me go", said Maka, "you said you forgive me".

"Well, consider this to be a reminder not to mess with my stuff", said Patty, "It won't be fine next time, so I want you to learn your lesson now".

"What are you going to do?", asked Maka in horror.

"You'll find out soon enough", said Patty. Maka continued to beg for Patty to let go off her. Patty dragged Maka into the bathroom. Maka's eyes widened as she realized what Patty had in store for her.

"Stop it Patty", said Liz. Patty let go off Maka.

"Why would you do that?", asked Liz.

"She looked through my stuff", said Patty.

"You know what happened the last time you gave someone a swirly", said Liz.

"But if I give Maka a swirly, she will be punished, too", said Patty.

"I don't think they would punish the victim", said Maka.

"Think about it, the last time, they punished me and my roommates", said Patty, "So if I give you a swirly, you'd get punished for it, too".

"And me and Tsubaki, too. So don't!", yelled Liz.

"If you say so, sis", said Patty. She then left, whistling happily.

"Sorry about that", said Liz, "she's just really sensitive about her desk".


	17. Tsubaki's punishment

"Thanks for the rescue", said Maka. Getting her head rammed down into a toilet was not really a experience she wanted to make. But why did Patty react so hostile? She must be hiding something in her desk. Maybe the secret to her great political education grades. How did she even managed to catch Maka? Maybe it was a trap she had prepared some time ago, leave the room to and look through the peephole. Or maybe Patty was just lucky. Either way, Maka did not want to try searching Patty's desk again. There had to be another way.

Maka didn't want to get back to her studies just now. She would get back, but she first had to find out Patty's secret. She aimlessly wandered the halls, searching for something, a clue, but she didn't find any. She came by the library. It was a quit place, and it didn't seem to be the kind place she expected Patty to enter voluntarily. But what did she want to do in the library? They probably didn't have any books about cheating on tests. Maka continued to aimlessly walk around the building. Soon, she was standing in front of Medusa's office. Without knowing what she was doing, she knocked on the door and entered once she was told to.

"What do you want?", asked Medusa. Tsubaki was sitting on a one legged chair, with her hands on her head. Her eyes were puffy, and one could spot traces of tears running from her eyes. A more detailed look revealed to Maka that the foot on its leg,which was in the center of the chair, was rounded off. This chair could not stand by itself. Next to Tsubaki was Crona, sitting on a similar chair.

"Would you like to join them?", asked Medusa, "You'd have to fetch another unipod from the janitor".

"No, thank you, ma'am", said Maka.

"Then why are you here?", asked Dr. Gorgon. Maka didn't know what to answer.

"Too much time on your hands?", asked Dr. Gorgon. Maka had to say something, but she only managed to stammer incoherently.

"I can help", said Dr. Gorgon, "Copy pages three hundred and seventy and seventy-one from 'The eternal struggle'. If you make a mistake, you'll do it over. It's due tomorrow".

"Yes, ma'am", said Maka. She then left, before Dr. Gorgon decided to give her a strike on her behavior card, too. Back in her room, Maka opened the president's autobiography and got started with her extra work. How avoidable this would have been. But know there was nothing she could do. Halfway through the first page, a writer's cramp began to develop. Someone entered the room. It was Tsubaki.

"You should not have come to Medusa's office", said Tsubaki, "I can do without the moral support".

"Can you help me?", asked Maka.

"She knows my handwriting by now", said Tsubaki, "we'd only get in more trouble". Tsubaki began with her homework. Maka continued with her writing assignment, her writer's cramp getting worse and worse. But Maka progressed. She had soon finished the first page. Her writers cramp stopped getting worse, but it was very bad already. The thought that she was working on a punishment exercise made this cramp worse. If she was writing an essay for a class, or during a test, it would be bearable. But it was the thought that counts, and the thought was not bearable. Then finally, Maka had finished, just in time for dinner. Tsubaki remained at her seat, so Maka asked her if she wanted to eat something, too.

"I would love too, but Dr. Gorgon has told me not to", said Tsubaki, "If I go to dinner now, I get a day in solitary without food".

"I can bring you something", offered Maka.

"Don't, if they catch you, we'll both end up in solitary", said Tsubaki. Maka wanted to help Tsubaki, but she decided that she would honor Tsubaki's advice instead. It was sad that Tsubaki got in trouble today, because they served something actually decent today. Maka spotted Dr. Gorgon across the hall, she was dragging an inmate by her hair. Maka returned to her meal. Back in her room, Maka continued to read her book while waiting for lights out.

Some time later, the doors were locked. Maka noticed that Liz and Patty hadn't returned yet. Then there was a scream. Patty was screaming in pain. Then again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Then Liz began to scream, again six times. The door was opened, and Liz and Patty stumbled in, desperately rubbing their behinds. The door was locked again. They would probably sleep on their stomachs today.


	18. Strike no 3

The next day, Saturday, Maka found that morning exercise went by better than on Friday, but not quite as good as on Thursday. But she was getting better again. Once they were back in their room, Tsubaki told her that it was laundry day for their corridor, and that they had to put their dirty clothes and put them into the laundry basket, which Maka had seen on the way back to the room. After political education, they had Literature. After the teacher, Ms. Smith had assigned her a seat, she started her lecture. She explained several rules on spelling, before moving on to grammar. Then Ms. Smith called several students to front of the class and made them correct sentences she had written on the board. If one missed even one mistake, they got a whack on the hand with the cane. Maka was glad that she didn't get called.

The rest of the day's classes went by rather well. After work, their freshly washed clothes were delivered, except that Maka didn't get any. In the second block of political education, Ms. Berger reminded them of the test they would have to write on Monday, discussing what they would have to learn until then. Maka noticed that Patty wasn't paying attention. The more Maka thought about how Patty managed to ace the last test, the more it was driving her crazy. The two remaining classes were science and geography. In Science, they discussed another valuable contribution of the president to modern science, the internal combustion engine. In geography class, they learned about mountain ranges and several settlements. The teacher, Ms. Wilder, gave them a blind map to fill out as homework, warning them that it would be on the test.

The rest of the day went by quietly, Maka didn't want to risk upsetting Patty again by looking through her stuff. And Patty had probably destroyed anything that could betray the fact that she had cheated to anyone. And to be honest, who would keep cheat sheets around after they had already passed the test. Maka would have to search immediately on Sunday evening, because then that would be right before the test.

On Sunday, Maka realized after getting out of bed, that she had six hours of political education ahead of her. Ms. Berger started a new lesson, and gave them tons of homework. But then she said that she wouldn't collect it on Monday, so that they had time to study. Then she let them go to lunch.

"I've forgotten to tell you, Maka", said Tsubaki, after they had eaten lunch, "but we get assigned to a new work group today".

"Why?", asked Maka.

"Assignments always change on Sunday", said Tsubaki.

"I hope we get a good assignment this time", said Liz.

"Anyway, we should get going", said Tsubaki. To Maka's surprise, they didn't go to the janitorial cupboard, but to the yard. A bell rung, at which point the janitor read a list with their new work assignments.

"Room B-three-fifteen", read the janitor, "laundry". Maka's roommates looked unhappy about their new assignment, but they still got on their way immediately. The laundry room was in the basement. It was quite large, with rows of washing machines, laundry racks and ironing boards. The room got almost no sunlight, except for a little bit shining through the ventilation shafts. Maka realized that these shafts were large enough for a grown man to fit through, so it should be no problem for a young girl. And since there were no ventilation shafts in the yard, these must lead outside. If she wanted to escape, she could try to break through one of the shafts here. Then she would only have to get past the large barbed wire fence and the snipers on the guard towers. If the guards in this room wouldn't stop her already.

Maka's room wasn't the only one assigned to the laundry, there were quite a lot of other inmates who had also been assigned to laundry. The guards began assigning everybody their specific workplace, some had to operate the washing machines, others had to hang the clothes on the laundry racks, some had to iron clothes, Maka and her roommates were assigned to detergent duty. Since the laundry machines couldn't reliably get the the uniforms clean, they had to soak them in mixture of water and a special detergent first, then wring them out.

"We got the worst possible assignment", complained Tsubaki while they were getting over to the detergent station. Maka asked why. "You'll see", was Tsubaki's answer. Maka dropped a garment into the clear foul smelling liquid. Then she reached for it, getting quite a lot of the liquid on her hand. She wondered what was so bad about this work. Back home, laundry had been her chore since she had turned ten, and they didn't have washing machines in her village, they didn't even have electricity or running water. Tsubaki must be from a wealthy family, that she would complain about such work. The solution was foul smelling, but Maka had smelled worse things.

"So, if this is the worst assignment", said Maka, "then what is your favorite one?".

"The nursery", said Tsubaki.

"The nursery?", asked Maka.

"It's where inmates under three years are held", said Tsubaki, "As long as you don't have to change their diapers, it's quite nice work".

"They have inmates under three here?", asked Maka.

"Yes", said Tsubaki, "they are mostly here because their parents have been sent to a reformative labor camp". Maka tried to imagine what it would be like to spend her entire life up to adulthood here. The few days she had been here were already bad enough. She just hoped that they would actually send her home after her year. Maka's hands began to itch. At first, it was only minimal, barely noticeable. But then it became stronger. Maka scratched her hand. It bought a brief relief, but once she stopped scratching, the itching came back, worse than before. Her hands were starting to slowly turn red, too. And she had only been working here for an hour. Over the course of the second hour, the itching became worse and worse. Then they were released by the bell. The itching was driving her crazy. She could barely focus on where she was going. She lost her balance. She managed to catch herself on a shelf with several bottles, knocking one over. Looking around, Maka saw that she must have slipped in a puddle.

"You knocked that bottle over", said a guard.

"I'm sorry, ma'am", said Maka, "It was an accident".

"Well, accidents do happen, and the bottle didn't break", said the guard, "I'll just give you a strike and leave it at that".

"Could you please punish me in some other way?", begged Maka.

"I have to give you a strike, but if you want, I can get a teacher to give you a caning, too", said the guard. Defeated, Maka handed her behavior card over to the guard, who punched the third hole in it, wrote the time down, and handed it back to her.


	19. Punishment

Maka stared at her card in disbelieve. She had hoped she would be able to avoid getting into any more trouble, but now, her third strike was there. She wondered what Medusa would do to her. She would soon find out.

"You should wash your hands before you go to Medusa's office", said Liz.

"Why?", asked Maka.

"It helps the itching", explained Liz. Now that Liz mentioned it, Maka noticed the itching in her hands again. Liz was, of course, completely right, Medusa would probably not give her the opportunity to wash her hands. She would have to do that now. The feeling of the cold liquid hitting her red and irritated flesh was great. It soothed the itching, and would keep it from coming back. Maka rubbed her hands try, hoping to get more of the detergent solution off her hands. But now it was time to visit Dr. Gorgon's office. Maybe she could simply not go? If she managed to avoid getting into trouble again for the rest of the year, nobody would ever know about her full behavior card, except for the guard and everybody in the room. But what about her math test? She knew for sure that she had done very poorly. She would probably get a strike for that. There was no way to hide her full behavior card. Anxiously, she went down, or rather upwards, toward Dr. Gorgon's office. She knocked on the door. Maybe Dr. Gorgon was somewhere else at the moment. Then she wouldn't get punished now. Maka waited. Nothing happened. Dr. Gorgon was probably not in her office. That meant that Maka could go.

"Enter", ordered Dr. Gorgon. Why did she respond only now? Maybe she wanted to inflict additional torment on Maka. With a shaking hand, Maka opened the door and entered.

"You again?", asked Dr. Gorgon, "I hope you're not here to waste my time again".

"My behavior card is full", said Maka, handing her the card.

"Oh my", exclaimed Dr. Medusa Gorgon, "You've only arrived here five days ago and your card is already full. You're quite naughty. You need to be more observant of the rules of this institution. The most important thing to you should be your reformation. That is a service we provide to you, free of charge. The president shoulders the bill, don't you see how generous he is? Through your disruptive and disobedient behavior, you are hurting all your fellow inmates, but especially yourself. But don't be afraid, we know how to deal with rebellious and stubborn youths like you".

"Please, ma'am", begged Maka, "Please look the other way".

"If I did, I wouldn't be doing my job right", said Dr. Gorgon, picking up a cane, "I'm only here to help you". The cane Dr. Gorgon was holding was thicker and longer than the ones the teacher's had used. All in all, it looked a lot meaner. Dr. Gorgon tapped the surface of a small desk next to her desk, which was empty.

"Please don't cane me, Dr. Gorgon", begged Maka.

"Lean over the desk", said Dr. Gorgon. Maka didn't dare to disobey.

"Please, Dr. Gorgon, have a heart", begged Maka.

"Since you are obviously having a problem following the rules", said Dr. Gorgon, "I'll give you the caning you need, thirty strokes".

"Please don't, I'll bleed out", said Maka, as Dr. Gorgon was lifting Maka's skirt up.

"No silly, I'll make sure that it wont even bleed", said Dr. Gorgon as she pulled Maka's underpants down, "But it will hurt, nonetheless".

"Please have mercy", begged Maka.

"Fine", said Dr. Gorgon, turning to the door, she called, "I need a guard here!" Maka wondered what this meant. Would Medusa really look the other way and let her go? Maka still didn't dare let go off the desk.

"What do you need?", asked the guard.

"Hold her hands so that she can't reach back while I cane her", ordered Dr. Gorgon. The guard went around the desk and grabbed Maka's hand. She was blond and blue eyed, smiling at Maka. How Maka hated this smile. For a moment, she wished nothing more but to see it shattered. Why did she hate this guard so much? Her thoughts were interrupted when Dr. Gorgon gently tapped her behind with the cane.

The cane swooshed through the air, eliciting a scream of pain from Maka as it landed. This one did hurt more than the cane Ms. Metzger used on her. And she still had twenty nine strokes to go. Another stroke, more pain and another scream, twenty eight to go. After the third stroke, Maka lost count. The pain didn't allow her to count. She desperately tried to reach back and protect herself from the remaining strokes, but the guard held her hands in an iron grip. Even though Maka had lost count of how many strokes she had received, she knew that she still had a long way to go. Through her tears, she could see the guard smile. A wide grin. After each stroke, there was brief moment of hope, hope that she had just received the last stroke, but the swooshing of the cane told her that that wasn't the case. But even as she heard it swooshing towards her behind, she still had a little bit of hope left that Medusa was only faking this stroke and would stop the cane in the air before it hit Maka. But each time, she was proven wrong. Then the pain suddenly got worse. Maka hoped that this was a sign that her punishment was soon to be over. She certainly couldn't take much more, but the pain continued, much worse than before, and it got worse with each additional stroke. And still, every single one of these painful impacts was followed by the cane swooshing again, and each swooshing followed by another painful impact. It seemed endless, until at some point, the impact wasn't followed by the cane swooshing towards her behind again. It took Maka some time to realize what this meant, that her punishment was over.

"Sort your clothes", ordered Dr. Gorgon. The guard let go off her hands. Maka, still crying, sorted her clothes and rubbed her bottom, in an futile effort to soothe the pain.

"Kneel down on this triangular piece of wood here", ordered Dr, Gorgon, "and keep your hands outstretched". Maka didn't want to kneel down on the triangular piece of wood, since the sharp side was looking up. Maka shyly looked around. Medusa was gently tapping on her hand with the cane, looking at Maka impatiently. This was a nonverbal threat Maka immediately understood. She knelt on the log. At first, Maka thought she could bear the pain. But it just kept getting worse and worse.

"Hold this for me", said Medusa, putting a heavy book into Maka's hand, "and don't sit on your heels, sit on your knees".

"Yes, ma'am", Maka managed to say, for she was crying again.

"And this one, too", said Medusa. The pain in Maka's knees had reached a point where it was able to compete with the pain in her buttocks. As if that weren't enough, her arms were starting to cramp up.

"How long do I have to stay like this?", asked Maka.

"Be quiet", said Medusa, "Or I'll cane you again". The threat was effective. And Maka resigned herself to waiting in pain, crying softly, as her knees and arms became her new tormentors, for Medusa's heart to soften. An inmate entered the room, to complain about her work assignment. Ms. Gorgon gave her a quick stroke with the cane on the hand and sent her away.

After what seemed like an eternity later, Medus said a phrase Maka had longed for: "You may stand up". Maka's knees were shaky, her arms weak.

"I hope you've learned your lesson", said Dr. Gorgon, "If you have to report back within the next week, I'll cane you in front of everybody. And before I forget, you get no dinner today. If you try to do so anyways, you get a day of solitary.


	20. A friendly game of soccer

"I understand, ma'am", said Maka. This certainly wasn't an experience she wanted to make another time. She especially didn't want to find out what it would be like to get caned in front of everybody, or who was included in "everybody", probably all of her classmates, maybe even every inmate and every staff member. Her behind was still hurting like crazy. Maka went back to her room, remembering that she still had homework to do. On the way she passed a bathroom. She wanted to see in how bad of a state her behind was in, so she entered the room. There was no one else there. Maka quickly went up to the mirror. Since the mirror ended at a sink a good bit above the ground, Maka stood a few meters in front of it and stood on her tiptoes, which allowed her to see the seat of her skirt in the mirror. Maka then lifted her skirt and pulled her panties down to see the marks of her torment. An intricate pattern. Fifteen painful lines where laid side by side, parallel to each other and the ground. The other fifteen were laid diagonally above them. No area seemed to have been hit more than twice. Medusa had delivered a caning much more painful than the one Ms. Metzger gave her, without any more risk of drawing blood. Maka had to admire her skill with the cane. Then she sorted her clothes and got on her way back to her room.

Back in her room, Tsubaki was sitting at her desk, reading a book, Liz was lying in her bunk, reading the political education textbook and Patty had folded animals out of paper and was mashing them together, making fighting noises.

"Shouldn't you study for tomorrow's test?", asked Liz, looking at Patty.

"I have all the answers", said Patty, pointing at her head, "In here".

"I don't believe you", said Liz.

"I don't care", said Patty. They both went back to their respective activities. Maka took the pillow from her bunk, put it on her chair and sat down on it. It helped, somewhat, but it still hurt quite a lot. She decided that she would rather stand, so she put her pillow back into her bed. She just hoped she wouldn't get caned for that math test tomorrow. Maka was glad that she had already finished everything except political education yesterday. And Ms. Berger had told them that she wouldn't collect the homework tomorrow. But if she didn't do the homework today, she would have to do it tomorrow, and then she would have to do even more homework. But by tomorrow, the pain in her behind would have gotten better. Maka figured that she should better do her homework, lest she'd suffer the consequences. After two hours of work, Maka was finished with her homework and began studying for the test. She went over the material, quizzed herself, got half of it wrong and started over. After a few repetitions, she knew everything, but she did it again, just in case. Once she was satisfied with her knowledge, she decided that she would go and play now, she would study a bit more after dinner. On her way out, she noticed that Patty had already left. In the yard, she met Patty again, who was playing soccer with a few other girls.

"Hey Maka, wanna join?", asked Patty. Maka decided not to bother herself about Patty's secret for a time.

"Okay, will be fun", said Maka, hoping that a game of soccer would distract her from the pain, while also hoping that it wouldn't make her knees hurt more.

"You and I get to pick teams", said Patty.

"Hey, why you two?", asked a girl, if Maka recalled her name correctly, it was Eruka, the girl Patty had given a swirly once.

"Because I scored the most goals last match and she is new", said Patty.

"Fine", said Eruka. As a token of goodwill, Maka picked Eruka first. Then Patty took her pick. At the end, Patty picked Crona.

"But I'm not playing", said Crona.

"You are now", said Patty.

"I don't know how to deal with this", said Crona.

"We need to make this interesting", said Patty, "the captain of the losing team gets a punishment".

"No way", said Maka. She had enough off punishments for that day, in fact, she had enough of punishments for the rest of her life.

"That's the rules", said Patty, "now what should the punishment be?".

"The looser has to stay out after curfew", suggested Eruka.

"The looser has to tell Ms Metzger that math is useless", suggested Hanna.

"The looser has to turn in an empty sheet at tomorrow's test", said Sarah.

"The looser has to wear a kick-me-sign tomorrow, all day", suggested Maka. A kick-me-sign would at least not get her caned. Then she realized to her horror, that a kick-me-sign would mean that people would kick her, quite possibly in her behind.

"I would like to retract my suggestion", said Maka.

"No, I like it", said Patty.

"How about this, the looser has to volunteer for work in the library", suggested a guard. The girls all looked in silence.

"That's good, thank you, ma'am", yelled Patty, "Okay, then let's get started". The soccer match was brutal. Maka found that if she gave her best, she was able to ignore the pain. Patty's team quickly scored three times in a row. Then Maka's team scored. The tables seemed to have turned. However, Patty's team scored again. But Maka and her team didn't give up. Then they started to score big. By the time the dinner bell rung, the score was eleven to ten. In Maka's favor.

"Looks like I win", said Maka, smiling.

"No", said Patty, "you didn't score any goals, in fact, you only slowed your team down".

"But my team still won", said Maka, "Therefore you lose".

"Okay, I'll volunteer for work tomorrow", laughed Patty. Then they went to dinner. Before she entered the canteen, Maka remembered what Meduas had said. She didn't dare disobey her. What if she got solitary confinement on the day of a test? Maka went back to her room, quite hungry, and her body was once again starting to hurt everywhere. All the pain had returned. Maka went back to studying. She wanted to do well on tomorrow's test.


	21. Political education test

The next day, Maka entered political education class full of enthusiasm. But when she sat down at her desk, she received a painful reminder of yesterday's events. She would have difficulties sitting still today. After the bell had rung, Ms. Berger handed out the test, and Maka got to work immediately after Ms. Berger had ordered them to start. The first question was rather simple. Questions five to ten were essay questions. Maka was able to answer all of them, and she felt good doing it. She found all the answer's in her mind, and was able to bring them to paper quite easily. Ms. Berger was patrolling between the desks. Maka found that cheating, not that she needed to, would be extremely difficult. After one and an half hours, Ms. Berger collected the tests. Maka still felt confident that her answers were correct.

The rest of the classes went by rather uneventfully. During math class, somebody asked Ms. Metzger when she would return the pop quiz, to which Ms. Metzger said that she had quite a lot of tests to correct, and would not be able to return the test this week. Then she went on to say that the homework performance of several students was below par, and that she would give the class twice as much homework because of that. At the end of her lesson, she stayed true to her word and gave them twice as much homework as she usually gave them. Maka guessed that she would have a lot less free time today. She just hoped that Ms. Metzger would give them less homework tomorrow. In gym class, they did something which Ms. Bell described as very important, marching while carrying a backpack filled with bricks. By the end of class, Maka's whole body was hurting. Exhausted, she went off to lunch.

After the afternoon block of political education, they had music class. Maka didn't quite now what to expect. The first thing Maka noticed about the music room was that it was more spacious that the other classrooms. Not because it was much bigger, even though it was certainly bigger than average. Most of the desks were crammed into one half off the room, leaving quite a lot of distance between the students and the teacher. The music teacher, Ms. White, assigned Maka a desk before she started with her lesson. Maka was seated right next to Tsubaki. Ms. White started her class by making them stand up, form in a semicircle and sing the national anthem. She found that somebody's singing was off key, so she made them sing it again and again, until they got it all right. Then she made them sing scales. Maka had some difficulties at first, as this was the first time she had to sing a scale, but after a few repetitions, and by the fact that Ms. White got the cane out after she had messed it up for the third time, Maka could sing it correctly the fourth time and avoid the cane. Patty wasn't so lucky. After Ms. White was satisfied with all their scale signing ability, she made them sing a popular song, the kind people sing while they were taking a break from monotonous work. Ms. White explained that it was the song of the working men and women, who were the lifeblood of West Wyoming. Maka knew it by heart, she had often sung it herself while helping out during harvest. The homework was to learn the song by heart.

The last class of the day was literature, they started reading a book in class. The content of the book was rather surreal, Maka could swear that half the words were made up. After asking for the definitions of a few of these words, Ms. Smith but a dictionary on her desk and told Maka to look these words up herself. Maka came to the conclusion that these words did exist, but that they were incredibly obscure. And the book still made no sense at all.

This day, Maka was able to finish her homework faster than her roommates, so she lied down in her bunk. Then Dr. Gorgon came in.

"I thought I'd drop by", said Medusa, "Don't you have homework to do, Maka?".

"I already finished all my homework", said Maka.

"Show me", said Medusa.

"Here, ma'am", said Maka, showing Medusa her homework.

"And where is music homework?", asked Medus.

"We have to memorize a song", said Maka.

"And do you memorize it?", asked Medusa.

"Yes, ma'am", said Maka, "I often sang it in my village before I was sent here".

"Right", said Medusa, "Sorry that I bothered you". Then Medusa left.

"Maka's a hillbilly!", laughed Patty, "Hillbilly! Hillbilly! Hillbilly!".

"Shut up!", said Maka.

"Hillbilly!", shouted Patty. Maka decided to leave the room. She hoped that by the time she came back, Patty would have stopped finding that funny. She took her book to the common room, where she began to read. She had almost finished her book already, so she managed to finish it off in half an hour. Since she didn't intend to reread the book right away, she went to the library to return it. In the library, she found Patty, who went up to the librarian just as Maka approached the desk as a well.

"I would like to volunteer for extra work in the library", said Patty.

"Okay, you can start cleaning these shelves over there", said the librarian. Then Maka stepped up to the librarian's desk.

"I would like to return this book, ma'am", said Maka.

"Good, I'll just mark it as returned in my records", said the librarian, turning to Patty, she warned, "Work faster or you get the cane".

"You are quite harsh to people who volunteer", said Maka.

"Normally, working in the library is the punishment for people who aren't quiet in here", said the librarian.


	22. Olcay

"I'll just go now, ma'am", said Maka, leaving the library behind. Maka went to the yard. While walking around the yard, she saw something shiny, stuck partially in the ground. Maka pulled it out. It was a small rectangular glass bottle with a dark red liquid liquid inside of it. There seemed to have once been a label on the bottle, but it had apparently been torn off. Curious, Maka unscrewed the top and sniffed the liquid. It had a strong sharp smell. Maka didn't like it. It reminded her off apple juice that had been left for too long. She screwed the top back on again.

"Hey, that's mine", said a girl.

"Really?", asked Maka.

"Give it to me or I'll kick your ass", said the girl. Maka didn't want to get into a fight, so she handed the bottle back to the girl.

"One word about this to a guard and I'll slit your throat", threatened the girl. Maka didn't know how serious the girl was. Was this girl dangerous? What kinds of girls were locked up in Pinedale? There were political offenders, such as Maka, and girls who's parents had been convicted of crimes and could therefore not raise their kids. But did they also have violent offenders here? Possibly, maybe Maka should ask a guard, or maybe Medusa.

At dinner, Maka could not find her roommates. While she was looking around for them, she saw Crona sitting by herself. Maka wondered what it must be like, sitting there all alone, with no one to talk to. Maka sat down with her.

"How are you?", asked Maka. Crona mumbled something incomprehensible.

"How are you?", asked Maka again. Crona got up and went to another table, where she continued to eat her meal. Maka was speechless. What did she do that scared Crona so much that she changed tables? Maka wondered, should she follow Crona? She decided not to.

"Hi, hillbilly", greeted Patty. This was slowly starting to annoy Maka.

"Stop calling me a hillbilly", said Maka.

"Okay, hillbilly", said Patty, before she burst into laughter and walked away. Maka wanted to punch Patty. But instead, she swallowed her anger, finished her meal, returned the dishes and went back to her room, under the assumption that Patty would stay out until curfew. Tsubaki was also in the room, reading a book.

"Say, do they keep violent offenders here, too?", asked Maka.

"Yes, why do you ask?", said Tsubaki.

"Just curious", said Maka, not wanting to talk about the bottle she found, or the inmate threatened to slit her throat over it.

"Man, that librarian is a total slave driver", complained Patty as she entered the room.

"Why did you have to work in the library?", asked Tsubaki.

"I volunteered", said Patty.

"Why would you do that?", asked Tsubaki.

"She lost a bet", said Maka.

"That explains a lot", said Tsubaki.

"I don't think the librarian is that bad", said Liz, who had apparently listened in on their conversation, as she entered the room.

"I guess we'd have to ask an actual slave", said Maka with a shrug.

"My parents used to own a slave", said Tsubaki.

"Really?", asked Maka, "They must have been rich".

"What did they do?", asked Liz.

"I never knew what my father did for a living", said Tsubaki, "given the fact that they were executed for treason, I'd guess it wasn't really legal. I once saw a letter addressed to my father. I didn't find time to read it, but I did read the signature. Josef K."

"Think he and Louis K. are related?", asked Liz.

"Maybe they're sisters, like you and I", suggested Patty. Everybody laughed.

"Maybe they're married", suggested Patty.

"Why would two men be married?", asked Tsubaki sharply, "that's extremely immoral and a crime against nature and against West Wyoming".

"But Louis K. is a traitor", said Patty, "If he even is a citizen of West Wyoming. The President has banned the name 'Louis' shortly after he got into office, mandating that everybody below twenty years of age be renamed and no parents name their child 'Louis'. He did this because the name 'Louis' refers to a mythical creature of absolute evil. Said creature was, and still is, worshiped by a dangerous and influential cult. By banning the name 'Louis', he has taken an effective step in weakening that cults influence over West Wyoming, thus making their evil rituals less effective. In the following years, the harvests improved, which proved that the cults rituals were harming our crops. Especially hillbilly should know that, since crops are the most important things in a hillbilly's life, after the President and the glory of West Wyoming. In other words, if Louis K. is a citizen, he'd be around fifty years old by now".

"And how do you conclude he's younger than that?", asked Liz.

"Did you see the documents they read at our parents hearing?", asked Patty, "his handwriting had to come from somebody below fifty".

"Now you're making stuff up", said Liz.

"And he probably didn't write it himself, he probably has dozens of slaves who could do it for him", said Tsubaki.

"No, he's not rich, he can probably only barely afford to eat for himself", said Patty, "Only ruin can come from defying the president".

"How expensive are slaves, anyway", asked Maka.

"I think Olcay cost nine mark and fifty pennies", said Tsubaki.

"I've always wondered what it would be like to own a slave", said Maka.

"Well, Olcay used to do all the housework", said Tsubaki, "She was basically working all day long. Whenever I talked to her, she called me 'young mistress'. She kept that up even after I told her that I don't care about the title. Even after I told her to stop calling me that, to call me 'Tsubaki', instead. Even after I threatened to complain to my father".

"Did you?", asked Liz.

"Yes, but he took her side", said Tsubaki, "he explained to me that Olcay is a slave, and that slaves have to know their place, that it was therefore very important that she called me 'young mistress'".

"What did she wear?", asked Liz.

"A gray dress, sandals, and a collar", said Tsubaki, "I once asked her about the collar. She said that it was her slave collar, and that she had to wear it, so that people could see that she was a slave. The collar had a plaque on it, which, as far as I remember, listed her number, her owner's- my father's- name, and his adress, so that she could be returned if she ever tried to escape. I then asked her why she didn't just take the collar off, to which she told me that the collar was locked, and impossible to remove without the key. I once asked her how it came that she was a slave".

"And, how did it?", asked Maka.

"She was traveling from her hometown to her fiancee's town, to be married", said Tsubaki, "but the train she was traveling on was stopped by slavers, who took her and the rest of the passengers as prisoners. Like me, she had relatives who could possibly pay the ransom, but the ransom broker never returned and she was sold into slavery. I had trouble sleeping the night after she had told me that. I had a dream where I was Olcay and she was me". Then the lights went out.


	23. Ms Metzger is mad

The next day went by rather uneventfully. No test was returned, no new test was written. On Wednesday, during morning roll call, a counselor made an announcement before they were allowed to eat their breakfast.

"There will be another roll call after classes today", said the counselor, "You may got to breakfast now". Maka and her roommates went to breakfast.

"Why do we have two roll calls today?", asked Maka.

"I don't know", said Tsubaki, "But they're probably going to explain it to us during that roll call". Maka had to say that she was curious.

"Maybe it's a public caning", speculated Liz.

"Public canings are fun", said Patty, "As long as you're not the one being caned".

"Really?", asked Maka.

"They do that sometimes", said Tsubaki.

"But it could also be a collective caning", said Liz.

"What's that?", asked Maka.

"That means they cane everybody", said Liz, "happens sometimes". Maka hoped that they weren't called for a collective caning. Maka didn't even know why she would have earned it to be subjected to a collective caning. She could only hope that she wasn't going to get caned today.

"Well, they rarely do that", said Tsubaki, "Maybe we have to listen to one of these endless speeches again".

"But do collective canings happen?", asked Maka, a trace of worry in her voice.

"Well, the last one was roughly a month ago", said Liz.

"Maybe someone's gonna die", cheered Patty.

"Have you ever seen somebody executed?", asked Liz, "I don't think that's going to change today".

"We should get going", said Tsubaki, "we're going to be late for class". As Tsubaki had advised, the girls went to class.

"I have corrected your tests", said Ms. Berger. She began handing them out, one at a time, and like the last time, she commented each test she handed back. "Liz, C plus, a drastic improvement", a bit later, "Tsubaki, B minus, looks like you studied this time", then, "Patty, A plus, best score in class". Ms. Berger hadn't named the worst score in class yet. Maybe it was Maka. And with each test Ms. Berger handed back, Maka became more and more nervous. She shoved her fingertips in her mouth, as to bite her nails. But she didn't want to start something like that. She would probably get in trouble if her nails were in a catastrophic state.

"Maka, F, worst score in class". Maka felt like crying. What's worse, she would get a strike on her behavior card. Then, Ms. Ms Metzger returned the math test, she would get a second. And even if she just screwed up by a little bit, she would have three strikes again, and Maka took Medusa's threat seriously.

"Just kidding, A minus, you should have been more precise on the seventh question", said Ms. Berger. Maka took a breath of relieve. She would not wear the donkey ears, and she would not get a strike.

"Allison, F, worst score in class", said Ms. Berger. There was a strange look of hope in Allison's eyes, as if she hoped that Ms. Berger was joking again. "For real this time", added Ms. Berger, "Given how similar your answer on question nine is to your neighbor's, I was even wondering if I should count it as cheating, but I assumed you got at least one thing partially correct". Allison looked at her test, then at Ms. Berger, before she rested her head on the desk and cried. After the tests had been handed out, Allison went through the same humiliating ritual Tsubaki went through earlier. And again, Maka participated in throwing stuff at her and making fun of her.

During recess, the main topic was the upcoming roll-call, which some were calling an assembly. The speculations about it were going wild. Some thought it would be an execution, but another, more frequently mentioned opinion was that somebody was getting out of a longer term in solitary and would now be publicly caned. There even was a rumor that the "new girl from room three fifteen" would be caned. Maka told them that she would probably know something about it if she was going to get punished.

"Well, why should they tell you?", said the girl that had told the rumor to another inmate.

"I don't even know what I would get caned for", said Maka.

"You just wait and see", said the girl. Maka didn't know what the event would be, but she could be certain that it wouldn't be her caning. She would know about it. Another rumor that Maka heard was that this was an additional roll call to scare them. Maka decided that she should stop trying to figure out what was going on, since nobody else knew, either. After recess, they had math class. Right at the beginning of class, an inmate asked Ms. Metzger whether she had finished correcting the test or not.

"I'm not done yet, because your tests are so horrible", said Ms. Metzger, "I have already failed half the class. Only a few of you have passed, and even less are better than a C. I must honestly say that I'm disappointed in you. I'll most likely have the test finished in a week". Almost all of her students looked down at the floor as she said this. Ms. Metzger started her lecture. Hanna dropped her pencil case.

"Guards!", yelled Ms. Metzger, after a short while, two guards came into the room and asked what they should do, "Escort her to her counselor, she's disrupting my class".

"We'll bring her to the containment room, but I don't think this warrants informing the counselor", said the guard, "you should just cane her and be done with it". Hanna looked shyly and pleadingly at Ms. Metzger and the guard.

"Fine", said Ms. Metzger, dragging Hanna to the front of the class. She made Hanna bend over her desk, pulled her skirt up and her underpants down. Like she did with Maka, she first gently tapped Hanna's behind with her cane. Then the caning started. Maka was surprised how fast it went. It felt a lot longer when she was getting the cane. But seeing Hanna get it reminded Maka uncomfortably off the caning she had received last Sunday. The stripes were still visible, and it still hurt to sit down, but it was bearable now. In the middle of the caning, Hanna reached back and covered her behind.

"Oh, I'll just start over then", said Ms. Metzger, "And you get two extra. On the other hand, make that four".

"Should I hold the girl's hands?", asked the guard.

"No", said Ms. Metzger. Suddenly, Maka was extremely grateful that Dr. Gorgon had ordered a guard to hold Maka's hands. Ms. Metzger started the caning again. This time, Hanna made it to five strokes until she reached back.

"I'll start over and you get four more", said Ms. Metzger. Hanna's crying intensified as she heard this.

"I'll hold her hands", said the guard, "This is ridiculous".

"I don't want you to", said Ms. Metzger. But the guard didn't listen, and Ms. Metzger grudgingly finished the caning. All in all, Hanna had received twenty three strokes.


End file.
